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Author: 


Bloch,  Louis 


Title: 


The  coal  miners 
insecurity 

Place: 

New  York 

Date: 

1922 


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ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -    EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


Business 

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Bloch,  Louis. 

...  The  coal  miners'  insecurity;  facts  about  irregularity 
of  employment  in  the  bituminous  coal  industry  in  the 
United  States,  by  Louis  Bloch,  for  the  Department  of  in- 
dustrial studies,  Eussell  Sage  foundation.  New  York, 
Russell  Sage  foundation,  1922. 

50  p.    diagrs.    23*".    ([Russell  Sage  foundation,  New  York.    Division  of 
industrial  studies.    Pamphlets]  IS  7) 

"The  basis  of  this  report  is  a  manuscript  which  was  prepared  for  the 
Russell  Sage  foundation  by  Louis  Bloch." 


1.  Coal-miners — 
the  l/nited  States. 


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THE  COAL  MINERS' 
INSECURITY 


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1913    1914    t9K    1916    1917    1918    1919   1920   1921 


THE  IRREGULAR  PRODUCTION  OF  SOFT 
COAL  IN  THE  LAST  NINE  YEARS 


RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 
NEW  YORK 


April,  1922 


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THE  COAL  MINERS' 
INSECURITY 


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FACTS  ABOUT  IRREGULARITY 

OF  EMPLOYMENT  IN  THE 

BITUMINOUS  COAL  INDUSTRY 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


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FOR  THE  DEVA^TMSNf  CF  INDUSTRIAL  STUDIES 
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PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  pamphlet^  is  to  bring  together,  in  small 
compass,  dependable  data  drawn  mainly  from  publications 
issued  by  state  and  federal  bureaus,  which  show  some  of  the 
economic  facts  behind  the  unrest  of  the  miners  in  the  bituminous 
or  soft  coal  industry.  No  solution  of  the  problem  of  human  rela- 
tions in  this  industry,  nor  any  satisfactory  wage  adjustment,  will 
be  possible  until  industrial  leadership  has  proved  itself  competent 
to  give  to  the  men  employed  a  reasonably  continuous  oppor- 
tunity to  work  while  supplying  coal  to  the  country  in  the  quanti- 
ties required.  This  report  does  not  undertake  to  suggest  the 
methods  by  which  efficiency  and  stability  may  be  attained  in 
bituminous  mining,  but  merely  to  outline  certain  vital  facts  which 
affect  the  daily  working  life  of  the  coal  miner  and  explain  his 
willingness  to  strike  in  defense  of  his  wages.  Only  by  under- 
standing these  facts  can  the  public  exert  its  influence  toward 
more  co-operative  human  relations  in  the  industry. 

For  thirty-two  years,  from  1890  through  1921,  the  average 
number  of  days  of  operation  of  the  bituminous  mines  of  the  coun- 
try has  been  only  214  a  year.  The  miners,  of  course,  can  neither 
work  nor  earn  when  the  mine  is  not  operating.  Meanwhile  the 
number  of  new  bituminous  mines  has  steadily  increased.  Instead 
of  digging  coal  regularly  throughout  the  year  in  those  mines 
already  in  operation,  many  more  have  been  opened  than  were 
required  to  supply  the  country's  needs,  with  the  result  that  mines 
and  miners  are  idle  for  nearly  a  third  of  the  working  days  of  the 
year. 

The  miner  has  naturally  sought  rates  of  pay  sufficiently  high 
to  enable  him  in  his  214  working  days  to  earn  enough  to  maintain 
himself  and  his  family  throughout  the  year.  The  operator, 
seeking  to  keep  down  costs,  compares  these  rates  with  the  hourly 

» The  basis  of  this  report  is  a  manuscript  which  was  prepared  for  the  Russell 
bage  Foundation  by  Louis  Bloch.  Later  the  diagrams  were  constructed  and 
some  additional  material  supplied  by  members  of  the  staff  of  the  Foundation. 

3 


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or  daily  earnings  in  other  industries  as  evidence  that  the  miner 
is  over-paid,  but  he  does  not  usually  take  into  account  the  more 
r^ular  employment  in  other  occupations.  The  public,  eager  for 
lower  prices  for  coal,  is  not  in  sympathy  with  any  demand  of 
labor  which  would  seem  to  lead  to  higher  prices.  Thus  the  atten- 
tion of  all  three  groups  is  fixed  upon  the  wage  rate,  over  which  a 
conflict  of  interests  develops,  while  the  irregular  operation  of  the 
bituminous  mines,  which  is  the  cause  of  the  unfortunate  com- 
bination of  high  rates  and  low  earnings,  receives  no  effective 
consideration. 

Every  two  years  a  wage  contract  is  negotiated  in  the  mining 
industry  between  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  and  the 
operators,  and  every  two  years  the  public  faces  the  danger  of  a 
widespread  strike  if  the  representatives  of  miners  and  operators 
cannot  reach  an  agreement  satisfactory  to  both  sides.  Yet  no 
basis  for  a  permanently  satisfactory  contract  between  miners  and 
operators  in  this  branch  of  the  coal  industry  can  be  attained 
through  merely  changing  the  wage  rates,  while  employment  con- 
tinues to  be  intermittent  and  uncertain.  If  too  many  mines  are 
in  operation  and  too  many  miners  are  scantily  employed  in  them, 
the  condition  is  not  one  to  be  improved  through  periodic  contests 
between  the  operators  and  the  union  over  rates  of  wages  per  ton 
or  per  day.  Over-development  can  be  remedied  only  by  a  careful 
plan  of  regulation  to  limit  the  bituminous  mines  in  operation  to 
a  number  which  could  supply  the  country's  need  if  reasonably 
full  use  were  made  of  their  capacity.  In  such  a  plan  there  would 
be  no  permanent  conflict  of  interest,  since  the  public,  the  operator, 
the  investor,  and  the  miner  would  all  profit  by  a  more  efficient 
organization  of  the  bituminous  coal  industry,  which  would  make 
possible  more  regular  employment  for  the  miner,  reasonable  prices 
to  the  public,  and  wise  conservation  of  the  country's  soft  coal 
supply  for  the  future. 

The  facts  in  this  report  relate  solely  to  the  mining  of  soft 
coal,  not  anthracite.  Instability  and  irregular  operation  are 
much  less  characteristic  of  the  anthracite  industry.  The  natural 
supply  of  anthracite  coal  is  limited,  while  bituminous  coal  de- 
posits are  abundant.  In  the  anthracite  fields,  therefore,  over- 
development does  not  exist  as  it  does  in  the  bituminous  areas. 
Increase  in  the  selling  prices  of  soft  coal  results  in  the  opening  of 
more  bituminous  mines,  and  once  open,  deterioration  of  the 


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property  and  loss  of  capital  can  be  prevented  only  by  operation 
of  the  mine.  The  number  of  miners  at  work  under  the  more  favor- 
able conditions  of  anthracite  mining  is  very  much  less  than  the 
number  in  the  disorganized  industry  of  bituminous  mining.  The 
men  in  the  bituminous  coal  mines  number  about  600,000,  while 
only  150,000  are  at  work  in  the  anthracite  mines. 

Not  the  wage  rate  only  but  the  opportunity  to  earn  wages  regu- 
larly is  vital  to  the  miner.  Not  wage  rates  only  but  stability 
and  efficiency  of  production  affect  the  public  interest.  All  in- 
dustry pays  tax  for  capitalizing  and  operating  more  bituminous 
mines  than  are  required  for  the  country's  needs.  The  improve- 
ment of  human  relations  in  industry  which  the  public  conscience 
now  demands  can  be  attained  in  the  bituminous  mines  only  by 
such  thoroughgoing  reorganization  of  the  entire  industry  as  will 
stabilize  production  and  make  employment  regular. 


April  15, 1922 


Mary  Van  Kleeck 

Director,  Department  of  Industrial  Studies 


/ 


A 


... 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

«     ,  PAGE 

Preface * 

List  of  Tables ^  ..  1 .!.!.!.!.!]!!! !  8 

List  of  Diagrams g 

The  Coal  Miners'  Insecurity jj 

The  Country's  Use  of  Soft  Coal !!.!.!   12 

The  Capacity  of  the  Bituminous  Mines 14 

Increase  in  Mines 17 

Increase  in  Miners 20 

Intermittent  Employment  and  its  Causes 22 

Seasonal  Variations 95 

Earnings  of  Bituminous  Miners 32 

Miners'  Statistics  of  Earnings. ! . .  32 

Operators'  Statistics  of  Earnings '37 

Absenteeism ^ 

Earnings  in  1921 44 

The  Miners'  Estimates  of  Cost  of  Living 4^^ 

Summary ^7 


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LIST  OF  TABLES 

NO.  PAGE 

1.  Mines,  tonnage,  men  employed,  and  average  days  of  mine  operation, 
by  classes  of  mines,  Illinois  shipping  mines,  year  ended  June  30, 1919 ...   15 

2.  Average  annual  production  and  estimated  full  year  production  of  bi- 
tuminous coal  mines  in  the  United  States  from  1890  to  1919,  by  five- 
year  periods 18 

3.  Number  of  bituminous  coal  mines  and  tonnage  produced  in  the  United 
States  in  1913  and  in  1917,  by  classes  of  mines 19 

4.  Average  and  relative  number  of  employes  and  of  days  of  operation  for 
bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  United  States  from  1890  to  1919,  by  five- 
year  periods 21 

5.  Average  and  relative  number  of  employes  and  days  of  operation  for 
bituminous  coal  mines  in  Illinois  from  1890  to  1919,  by  five-year  periods  2 1 

6.  Days  lost  by  the  bituminous  coal  industry  each  year,  1890  to  1921 22 

7.  Bituminous  coal  produced  in  the  United  States  in  the  months  of  highest 
and  lowest  production  each  year  from  1913  to  1921 27 

8.  Monthly  production  of  bituminous  coal  by  shipping  mines  of  Illinois 
from  1906  to  1913 28 

9.  Average  annual  earnings  of  miners  and  average  days  of  mine  operation 

in  the  four  districts  of  the  central  competitive  field,  1913  to  1918 34 

10.  Actual  earnings  and  estimated  full  year  earnings  of  miners  in  the  four 
districts  of  the  central  competitive  field  in  1913  and  in  1918 37 

11.  Average  daily  earnings  of  miners  working  full  opportunity  during  the 
ten  months,  January  to  October,  1919,  in  selected  mines  in  the  fields 
comprising  the  central  competitive  field,  by  fields 39 

12.  Advantage  taken  of  full  opportunity  to  work  by  employes  in  selected 
bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  central  competitive  field  in  the  ten 
months,  January  to  October,  1919 40 

13.  Average  full-time  hours,  hours  of  mine  operation,  and  hours  worked  by 
miners  in  selected  bituminous  mines,  in  one  half-month  pay-roll  period, 

in  1919 42 

14.  Cost  of  a  health  and  comfort  budget  for  one  year  for  a  family  of  five  in 
mining  communities  at  price  levels  of  January,  1920 47 


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LIST  OF  DIAGRAMS 

^^-   .  PAGE 

1.  Bitummous  coal  consumed  in  the  United  States  in  1915,  by  uses 13 

2.  Number  of  shipping  mines  in  Illinois  operating  specified  number  of 
days  during  the  year  ended  June  30,  1919,  by  size  of  mines 16 

3.  Miners  employed,  tonnage  produced,  and  average  number  of  days  oper- 
ated by  the  bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  United  States,  1890  to  1921,  by 
years *        ^g 

4.  Days  operated  by  bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  United  States  each  year 
from  1890  to  1921  compared  with  full  working  year 23 

5.  Relative  importance  of  three  primary  causes  of  lost  time  as  estimated 
by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 23 

6.  Monthly  production  of  bituminous  coal  in  the  United  States.  1913  to 

,   »'21 26 

7.  Seasonal  fluctuation  in  the  production  of  bituminous  coal  in  Illinois 
mines,  1906  to  1913 3Q 

8.  Time  worked  by  miners  and  time  the  mines  operated  compared  with  full 
time 43 


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THE  COAL  MINERS'  INSECURITY 

"They  have  opened  three  mines  where  only  two  were 
needed ;  they  have  employed  three  men  where  only  two 
were  necessary.  These  mines  and  men  can  find  pro- 
ductive work  only  during  175  instead  of  a  possible  300 
days  in  a  year     .     .     . 

"This  idle  time  of  the  miners  is  not  confined  to  one 
season  or  period  during  which  they  can  find  employ- 
ment elsewhere.  To  the  contrary,  the  men  are  always 
subject  to  call,  for  which  reason  they  urge  a  greater  daily 
wage  that  their  annual  income  may  be  sufficient  for  their 
needs.  "1 

This  statement  was  made  not  by  coal  miners  but  by  their 
employers,  the  coal  operators  of  the  bituminous  coal  fields.  If  it 
is  accurate,  it  reveals  a  perplexing  dilemma.  A  miner  is  paid 
for  the  number  of  tons  he  sends  out  of  the  mine.  The  men  in  a 
mine  earn  no  wages  on  days  when  the  mine  is  closed.  Is  it  true 
that  the  miner  is  given  opportunity  to  work  less  than  three  days 
out  of  five  working  days?  Is  this  intermittency  in  work  so 
uncertain  that  he  never  knows  from  week  to  week,  or  even  from 
day  to  day,  how  often  the  whistle  will  blow  to  tell  the  men  in 
the  camp  that  the  mine  will  be  open  for  work?  If  the  industry 
must  keep  too  many  men  "subject  to  call,"  can  the  wage  rates 
be  made  high  enough  to  pay  the  cost  of  living  for  the  miner  and 
his  family  the  year  round?  How  great  a  tax  does  this  inter- 
mittency of  coal  production  levy  upon  the  possible  earnings  of 

Illinois  Coal  Operators'  Association  and  the  Indiana  Bituminous  Coal 
Operators'  Association.  A  Statement  of  Facts  Concerning  the  Conditions  in 
the  Bituminous  Coal  Industry  in  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Indiana.  December, 
1914,  pp.  2,  6. — This  statement  was  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  "for  his  consideration  in  connection  with  the  appointment  of  the  Federal 
Trades  Commission. "  In  it  the  operators  besought  relief  from  "the  conflicting 
regulations  of  the  states  and  the  nation,"  which,  they  said,  rendered  them 
powerless  to  prevent  waste  in  the  industry.  "  Only  the  nation, "  they  declared, 
"can  reverse  this  tendency  and  provide  against  it." 

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the  miner,  upon  the  pockets  of  the  buyer  of  coal,  and  upon  the 
profits  of  investors  in  the  industry? 

To  outline  the  pertinent  facts  as  a  basis  for  discussion  is  the 
purpose  of  this  pamphlet.  The  statistics  which  are  available  in 
governmental  publications  show  how  much  soft  coal  the  country 
uses;  how  rapidly  the  number  of  mines  in  operation  has  been 
increasing;  how  many  days  in  the  year  bituminous  coal  mines 
are  operated ;  what  causes  are  responsible  for  lack  of  opportunity 
to  work;  and  how  employment  varies  from  season  to  season. 
Concerning  the  most  important  of  all  the  facts  about  employ- 
ment in  the  industry, — the  miner's  actualjearnings  in  a  year  com- 
pared with  what  he  is  capable  of  earning  if  he  had  the  opportunity 
to  weadtrggularly, — the  information  is  unfortunately  very  meagre, 
but  such  statistics  as  are  available  will  be  set  forth  in  later  pages. 

The  Country's  Use  of  Soft  Coal 
"At  the  present  time  America  requires  less  than  500,000,000 
tons  of  bituminous  coal  a  year,  while  the  capacity  of  the  mines 
in  operation  is  over  700,000,000  tons.''^  This  comparison  of 
needs  and  capacity  for  production  was  made  in  1920  by  the 
United  States  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  appointed  as  the 
means  of  ending  the  miners'  strike  for  higher  wages  which 
occurred  in  November,  1919.  A  decidedly  larger  estimate  of 
excess  in  capacity  has  been  made  by  F.  G.  Tryon  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  a  thoroughly  competent  specialist  on 
mining  statistics.  In  December,  1920,  in  a  speech  before  the 
American  Economic  Association,  he  said:  "Since  1915,  when 
the  spot  price  began  to  rise  sharply  in  response  to  the  war-time 
demand,  there  has  been  an  extraordinary  increase  in  capacity. 
In  1915  the  annual  capacity  of  the  soft  coal  mines  was  about 
675,000,000  tons.  Today  it  is  certainly  800,000,000  tons,  and 
there  is  evidence  pointing  to  a  figure  of  900,000,000  tons.  The 
increase  in  five  years  has  therefore  been  between  125,000,000 
and  225,000,000  tons,  or  between  19  and  33  per  cent.  .  .  .  The 
bituminous  industry  was  probably  never  more  heavily  over- 
developed than  it  is  today."* 

*  United  States  Bituminous  Coal  Commission,  Majority  and  Minority  Re- 
ports to  the  President,  1920,  p.  26. 

*  Tryon,  F.  G.,  The  Irregular  Operation  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Industry; 
in  American  Economic  Review,  Supplement  to  Vol.  XI,  No.  1,  March,  1921, 
p.  62. 

12 


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^ 


Unlike  anthracite  coal,  which  is  largely  used  in  households, 
bituminous  coal  is  the  fuel  of  transportation  and  industry.  Dia- 
gram 1  shows  how  the  country's  output  of  bituminous  coal  is 
consumed.  The  facts  are  for  the  year  1915,  which  was  fairly 
typical  of  other  normal  years  in  the  proportionate  demands  of 
the  several  industries  for  soft  coal,  though  the  total  consumption 
in  that  year  was  somewhat  less  than  normal. 

TONS 

Industrial  establishments*  159,745,000 

Railroads  122.000.000 

Coke  manufacture  61 ,832 ,000 

Household  55,000,000 

Export  18.776,000 


Bunker 

Used  at  mines 
Gas  manufacture 
Total 


11.777,000    |t.T 

9,799,000     I  ta 
4.563,000     I  1.0 


443,492.000 


Diagram  1.— Bituminous  coal  consumed  in  the  United  States  in   1915,  by 

uses^ 
*  Includes  electric  utilities. 

foio^^^?°SV"K^-^^'/^^'^'  Administration.  Report  of  the  Distribution  Division.  1918- 
1919,  Part  I,  Distribution  of  Coal  and  Coke,  p.  12.  »«»«"".  x^Ktr- 

The  significance  of  the  figures  for  our  discussion  is  their  evi- 
dence of  the  close  connection  between  the  soft  coal  mines  and  the 
other  industries  of  the  country.  The  regularity  of  demand  for 
the  goods  and  services  of  business  in  general  largely  determines  the 
regularity  of  operation  of  the  mines.  General  business  depression 
speedily  affects  the  employment  of  the  miners.  On  the  other 
hand,  efficiency  and  economy  of  management  of  the  bituminous 
mining! industry  directly  influences  primary  costs  in  all  other 
businSs.  The  fact,  shown  in  Diagram  1,  that  over  77  per  cent 
or  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  soft  coal  purchased  in  a  typical 
year  was  used  by  industrial  establishments,  by  railroads  and  in 
coke  ovens,  shows  how  dependent  are  the  soft  coal  mines  upon 
general  business  conditions.  Only  12  per  cent  was  used  as  house- 
hold fuel  and  only  1  per  cent  for  gas  production.^    While  the 

1  Coal  used  for  production  of  electricity  is  included  in  the  diagram  with  that 
used  by  industrial  establishments,  because  the  principal  use  of  electric  power  is 
for  industrial  purposes. 

13 


\.^ 


^^ 


1 


! 


purchase  of  soft  coal  by  householders  in  advance  of  need,  instead 
of  waiting  until  production  is  at  its  highest  point,  would  help  to 
make  employment  regular  for  the  miners,  it  would  nevertheless 
affect  only  12  per  cent  of  the  total  output.  More  important  to 
the  bituminous  mining  industry  is  regularity  of  purchase  by 
manufacturers,  railroad  companies,  and  makers  of  steel. 

The  Capacity  of  the  Bituminous  Mines 

The  largest  soft  coal  fields  are  found — in  order  of  the  amount 
of  their  production — in  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  Illinois 
and  Ohio,  with  smaller  fields  in  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Alabama, 
Colorado  and  scattered  areas  in  other  states.* 

How  far  their  combined  capacity  for  production  exceeds  the 
needs  both  of  industries  and  of  households  for  coal  has  been 
pointed  out  in  the  statements,  already  quoted,  of  the  United 
States  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  and  of  the  statistician  of 
the  Geological  Survey,  that  the  bituminous  mines  actually  in 
operation  can  produce  700,000,000  or  more  tons  a  year  while  the 
nation  requires  approximately  500,000,000.  This  over-develop- 
ment is  reflected  in  the  spreading  of  work  over  too  many  mines 
and  among  too  many  men. 

The  facts  for  Illinois,  which  is  the  third  largest  producing 
state,  may  be  regarded  as  roughly  representative  of  other  large 
bituminous  coal  fields.  The  working  time  in  Illinois  has  aver- 
aged less  than  in  the  Appalachian  coal  regions  but  the  difference 
is  merely  one  of  degree.  Table  1  shows  the  amount  of  coal  pro- 
duced, the  number  of  men  at  work,  and  the  days  of  employment 
in  mines  of  various  sizes  in  Illinois  for  the  year  ended  June  30, 1919. 
The  table  includes  data  for  shipping  mines  only.  These  are  the 
mines  which  distribute  coal  outside  the  immediate  locality.  Of 
all  the  coal  produced,  a  small  part  is  used  at  the  mine  for  steam 
and  heat,  a  part  is  made  into  coke  at  some  mines,  and  a  small 
part  is  sold  locally.  The  "local"  mines  produce  an  inconsider- 
able amount  of  the  total  tonnage. 

Table  1  shows  that  the  average  number  of  days  of  operation  of 
all  the  Illinois  shipping  mines  was  only  190  in  the  year  which 
ended  on  June  30,    1919.*     The  small  mines  averaged   fewer 

*  United  States  Geological  Survey,  Coal  in  1918,  Part  A,  Production,  Insert. 

*  The  period  covered  in  this  table  is  not  the  calendar  year  but  the  last  half 
of  1918  and  the  first  half  of  1919.    Comparison  with  the  average  days  of  opera- 

14 


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TABLE  1.— MINES,  TONNAGE,  MEN  EMPLOYED,  AND  AVERAGE 
DAYS  OF  MINE  OPERATION,  BY  CLASSES  OF  MINES,  ILLINOIS 
SHIPPING  MINES,  YEAR  ENDED  JUNE  30,  1919a 


Mines 

Tons  produced 

Men  employed 

Aver- 

Mines producing 

age 
days 

Num- 
ber 

Per 

cent 

Number 

Per 
cent 

Num- 
ber 

Per 
cent 

oper- 
ated 

Less  than  50,000 

tons 

91 

24.4 

2,400,238 

3.3 

4,836 

5.5 

169 

50,000  and  less 

than      100,000 

tons 

60 

16.1 

4,557,564 

6.2 

7,336 

8.3 

180 

100,000  and  less 

than  200,000 

tons 

93 

24.9 

13,723,060 

18.6 

19,881 

22.6 

195 

200,000  and  less 

than  400,000 

tons 

78 

20.9 

22,877,039 

31.0 

26,573 

30.2 

205 

400,000  and  less 

than  600,000 

tons 

33 

8.9 

15,936,120 

21.6 

16,744 

19.1 

201 

600,000  tons  and 

over 

18 

4.8 

14,257,700 

19.3 

12,592 

14.3 

215 

Total 

373 

100.0 

73,751,721 

100.0 

87,962 

100.0 

190 

e*  /  9*J?,P'^^  ^j;?™  ^'^^  ^°^  individual  mines  presented  in  the  Annual  Coal  Report  for  1919 
State  of  Illinois,  Department  of  Mines  and  Minerals,  pp.  4-9. 

days  of  operation  than  the  larger  ones,  and  for  those  producing 
less  than  100,000  tons  a  year  the  combined  contribution  to  pro- 
duction was  9.5  per  cent  of  the  total  for  the  state,  while  the  same 
small  mines  employed  a  slightly  disproportionate  number  of 
men,  13.8  per  cent  of  the  total.  The  size  of  the  mine  is,  however, 
not  the  controlling  factor  in  production.  The  thickness  of  the 
seam  of  coal,  the  use  of  machinery,  and  other  surrounding  condi- 
tions are  probably  more  important  than  the  size  of  the  mine,  and 
these  differences  do  not  appear  in  the  statistics  quoted.  The  im- 
portant point  brought  out  in  the  table  is  the  wide  variation  in  the 

tion  for  the  country  as  a  whole,  which  are  given  for  the  calendar  year,  is  there- 
fore, impossible.    The  average  days  of  operation  of  all  bituminous  mines  in  the 

^SVJ^'^^T  l^^  '\^^}\^?^  i^^  ^"  ^^^^'  (S^^  Diagram  4.)  In  the  last  half  of 
1918  and  the  first  half  of  1919,  production  of  bituminous  coal  fell  off  greatly  as 
compared  with  the  other  six  months  of  each  of  these  years.  (Diagram  6 ) 
Illinois  average  of  190  days  for  the  twelve  months  ending  June  30,  1919  there- 
fore, was  probably  not  very  different  from  that  of  the  country  as  a  whole. 

15 


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average  number  of  days  of  operation  of  the  mines,  from  169  to  215 
in  the  same  year  for  the  different  groups  of  mines. 

Even  in  regularity  of  operation,  however,  the  size  of  the  mine 
is  not  the  cause  of  differences.  Some  small  mines  work  as 
regularly  as  some  of  the  large  producers,  and  some  large  mines 
are  idle  as  many  days  in  the  year  as  their  smaller  competitors. 
This  fact  is  brought  out  clearly  in  Diagram  2,  which  shows  the 
days  of  operation  for  the  same  mines  for  which  statistics  are 
given  in  Table  1. 

38  Mines  produdns 

Less  than  50.000  tons 


50.000  to  100,000  tons  fTTTTTl 

100.000  to  200.000  tons  g^^ 

..     200.000  to  400.000  tons  m 

■^  400,000  to  600.000  tons  g^ 

Over  600.000  tons  ■■ 


M 


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Diagram  2. — Number  of  shipping  mines  in  Illinois  operating  specified  number 
of  days  during  the  year  ended  June  30,  1919,  by  size  of  mines 

In  Diagram  2  the  variation  in  the  number  of  days  of  operation 
in  a  year  is  even  more  startling,  since  it  is  not  obscured  in  aver- 
ages. Some  mines,  both  large  and  small,  were  open  as  few  as  120 
days  in  the  year,  while  one  was  recorded  as  having  "less  than  70" 
days  of  operation.  The  largest  group  operated  between  190  and 
199  days.   Only  one  mine  worked  as  many  as  300  days  in  the  year. 

16 


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4' 


Clearly  the  supply  of  coal  was  obtained  from  more  mines  than 
were  necessary,  operating,  therefore,  only  part  of  the  year. 
Other  conditions  being  equal,  fewer  mines  could  have  produced 
the  74,000,000  tons  of  coal  in  Illinois,  had  they  been  operated 
regularly  throughout  the  year.  To  illustrate  this  possibility, 
it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  Illinois  mines  having  an  annual 
production  of  200,000  tons  or  over  in  the  year  1919,  produced 
53,000,000  tons  in  the  twelve  months  considered  in  Table  1. 
These  mines  were  operated,  on  an  average,  205  days  during  that 
year.  Had  they  been  operated  a  full  year  of  304  days,^  at  the 
same  rate  of  production,  they  could  have  turned  out  79,000,000 
tons  of  coal,  or  5,000,000  tons  more  than  the  output  of  all  the 
mines  together.  In  other  words,  if  the  same  rate  of  production 
had  continued  for  304  days,  the  state's  output  of  coal  in  that  year 
could  have  been  secured  from  about  35  per  cent  of  the  mines  with 
steady  work  for  64  per  cent  of  the  miners/^hus,  the  facts  seem 
to  show  that  insecurity  of  employment  for  the  miner  of  bitumin- 
ous coal  results  from  the  operation  of  more  mines  and  the  employ- 
ment of  more  miners,  than  the  industry  can  reasonably  support.^ 

Increase  in  Mines 

That  the  bituminous  coal  industry  has  grown  steadily  during 
the  three  decades  since  1890,  and  also  that  unemployment  of  the 
miners  during  a  large  part  of  the  working  year  has  been  a  con- 
stant feature  of  the  industry,  is  shown  in  Table  2.  Diagram  3 
shows  the  increase  in  number  of  miners,  as  well  as  in  the  tonnage 
produced  and  the  days  of  operation  year  by  year  since  1890. 

Table  2  shows  that  the  average  annual  output  of  coal  during 
the  five-year  period  ending  with  1919  was  in  round  numbers 
507,000,000  tons.  This  output  of  coal  was  accomplished  in  an 
average  of  224  working  days.    If  a  working  year  of  304  days  had 

1  We  shall  assume  that  304  working  days  is  a  fair  standard  of  measurement 
?i  o®  "i*'"™"™  possible  working  year  for  the  operation  of  a  mine,  allowing  for 
52  Sundays  and  9  holidays  out  of  the  365  days  in  the  calendar  year.  The 
absenteeism  of  individual  workmen,  such  as  accidents  or  illness,  would  reduce 
further  the  reasonable  expectation  of  days  of  employment  for  the  miner. 
Moreover,  conditions  inevitably  affecting  an  industry  like  bituminous  coal 
would  make  it  unreasonable  to  expect  that  this  maximum  number  of  days  of 
operation  would  be  an  easily  attainable  standard.  We  are  concerned  here 
with  the  possible  number  of  days  of  operation  of  the  mines  as  a  standard  of 
measurement  of  regularity  of  operation  of  the  industry  rather  than  with  the 
average  days  of  employment  which  may  reasonably  be  expected  for  the  individ- 
ual miner,  or  a  reasonable  expectation  of  practice  for  the  mine. 

17 


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if 


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TABLE  2.--AVERAGE  ANNUAL  PRODUCTION  AND  ESTIMATED 
FULL  YEAR  PRODUCTION  OF  BITUMINOUS  COAL  MINES  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES  FROM  1890  TO  1919,  BY  FIVE-YEAR 
PERIODS^ 


Period 

Average 
tons  pro- 
duced per 
year 

Aver- 
age 
days 
oper- 
ated 
per 
year 

Average 

tons  per 

day 

Possible  ton- 
nage at  same 
rate  per  full 
year  of  304 
working 
days 

Excess  of  full  year 
over  average  an- 
nual production 

Tons 

Per 
cent 

1890-1894 
1895-1899 
1900-1904 
1905-1909 
1910-1914 
1915-1919 

120,653,153 
156,058,560 
251,954,028 
353,002,993 
434,852,490 
506,876,698 

211 
205 
223 
213 
216 
224 

571,816 
761,€61 
1,129,839 
1,657,291 
2,013,206 
2,262,842 

173,832,064 
231,423,344 
343,471,056 
503,816,464 
612,014,624 
687,903,968 

53,178,911 

75,364,784 

91,517,028 

150,813,471 

177,162,134 

181,027,270 

44 
48 
36 
43 
41 
36 

•  Data  for  production  and  average  days  of  operation  for  each  year  from  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  Coal  in  1918,  Part  A,  Production,  pp.  711,  717;  and  subsequent  publications 
of  United  States  Geological  Survey. 


600 

^ 

500 

(ft] 

or 

\M)j 

• 

n 

1 

400 

/ 

Ia 

/  V 

\ 

300 

• 

A 

M 

fon 
■uiioa*} 

200 

X' 

--_r/> 

A 

DftTS  0 

AH 

fo^^gp 

^ 

V 

100 

V 

:y 

\ 

0 

1890 


1895 


1900 


1905 


1910 


1915 


1920 


1925 


Diagram  3. — Miners  employed,  tonnage  produced,  and  average  number  of 
days  operated  by  the  bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  United  States,  1890  to 
1921,  by  years 

18 


/- 


-'\ 


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•  w 


t 


been  maintained  the  average  annual  production  at  the  same 
daily  rate  would  have  been  about  688,000,000  tons,  an  excess  of 
181 ,000,000  tons,  or  36  per  cent.  This  excess  of  capacity  over  pro- 
duction represents  a  surplus  of  many  thousand  men  employed  in 
the  industry.  For  instance,  in  1918,  when  the  average  output  per 
miner  was  high,  942  tons  was  the  average  amount  of  coal  pro- 
duced per  man,i  and  at  that  rate  it  would  take  about  192,000  mine 
workers  to  mine  the  181,000,000  tons,  which  was  the  difference 
between  actual  and  full-time  production  in  1919. 

The  increase  in  demand  for  coal  has  not  resulted  in  the  more 
regular  operation  of  mines  already  open.  New  mines  have  been 
opened  and  more  men  employed,  while  the  number  of  working 

TABLE  3.— NUMBER  OF  BITUMINOUS  COAL  MINES  AND  TON- 
NAGE PRODUCED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1913  AND  IN 
1917,  BY  CLASSES  OF  MINES* 


Mines 

Tons  produced 

Mines 

1913 

1917 

1913 

1917 

producing 

Num- 
ber 

Per 
cent 

Num- 
ber 

Per 
cent 

Number 

Per 
cent 

Number 

Per 
cent 

Less  than 

10,000 

tons 
10,000  and 

1,728 

29.9 

2,193 

31.7 

6,280,271 

1.3 

8,824,023 

1.6 

less  than 

50,000 

tons 
50,000  and 
less  than 

1,558 

27.0 

1,966 

28.5 

42,292,052 

8.9 

51,596,000 

9.4 

100,000 

tons 
100,000  and 

959 

16.6 

1,044 

15.1 

69,018,483 

14.4 

74,894,269 

13.6 

less  than 

200,000 

tons 
200,000  tons 

837 

14.5 

914 

13.2 

118,475,544 

24.8 

129,485,524 

23.5 

and  over 

694 

12.0 

792 

11.5 

241,463,241 

50.6 

285,365,741 

51.9 

Total 

5,776 

100.0 

6,909 

100.0 

477,529,591 

100.0 

550,165,557 

100.0 

loialS??  &°^t"^^*'*k^*?^^^  ?"^'   Administration,  Report  of  the  DistribuUon   Division. 
1918-1919,  Part  I,  Distribution  of  Coal  and  Coke,  p.  19. 

»  United  States  Geological  Survey,  Coal  in  1918,  Part  A,  Production,  p.  717. 

19 


V 


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days  has  shown  no  appreciable  increase.  Diagram  3  shows  the 
dead  level  of  days  of  operation  while  total  tonnage  and  the  num- 
ber of  miners  have  both  grown  steadily  larger. 

Moreover,  as  Table  3  shows,  the  small  mines  increased  in  num- 
bers in  the  period  between  1913  and  1917  more  rapidly  than  the 
large  ones, — a  fact  which  makes  more  complicated  the  problem 
of  stabilizing  the  industry,  since  regulation  of  small,  scattered 
and  unstable  operations  is  difficult.  Table  3  shows  the  changes 
between  1913  and  1917  in  the  number  of  mines  and  in  the  total 
production  of  coal  in  mines  of  different  sizes.  In  these  facts  for 
the  period  through  1917,  the  full  effect  of  our  participation  in 
the  war  was  not  yet  evident. 

Table  3  shows  that  in  1917  the  mines  in  the  United  States 
numbered  6,909,  which  was  an  increase  of  1,133  mines  or  20  per 
cent  over  1913.  In  1917  the  smaller  mines  were  more  numerous, 
in  proportion  to  large  ones,  than  in  1913,  when  the  number  pro- 
ducing on  the  average  less  than  50,000  tons  annually  was  3,286, 
or  57  per  cent  of  all  mines.  By  1917  this  number  had  increased 
to  4,159,  or  60  per  cent  of  the  bituminous  mines  of  the  country, 
but  these  60  per  cent  produced  only  11  per  cent  of  the  total  ton- 
nage. In  1917  the  mines  with  an  output  of  100,000  tons  or 
more  constituted  25  per  cent  of  all  the  mines  but  produced  75 
per  cent  of  the  total  output  of  coal,  while  the  other  75  per  cent 
of  the  mines  together  produced  only  25  per  cent  of  the  coal. 

Increase  in  Miners 

That  the  increase  in  mines  has  been  accompanied  by  an  in- 
crease in  miners,  rather  than  by  more  regular  employment  for 
those  already  in  the  industry,  is  clearly  indicated  again  in  the 
following  table.  Table  4  shows  how  the  number  of  employes  in 
the  bituminous  industry  has  increased  and  how  the  days  of  opera- 
tion have  varied  since  1890.  As  in  Table  2,  the  figures  are  given  in 
five-year  periods  and  the  average  number  of  days  of  mine  opera- 
tion is  brought  forward  from  that  table. 

The  number  of  employes  in  the  industry  has  increased  since 
the  five  years  ending  with  1894  from  217,000  (in  round  numbers) 
to  592,000  or  173  per  cent.  All  through  those  five-year  periods 
from  1890  to  1919,  the  average  number  of  days  of  mine  operation, 
or,  expressed  in  terms  of  the  miners*  interest,  the  opportunity 
for  employment,  has  remained  depressingly  low,  the  averages  for 

20 


/- 


• 


> 


iA 


TABLE  4.— AVERAGE  AND  RELATIVE  NUMBER  OF  EMPLOYES 
AND  OF  DAYS  OF  OPERATION  FOR  BITUMINOUS  COAL  MINES 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FROM  1890  TO  1919,  BY  FIVE-YEAR 
PERIODS* 


Period 

Employes 

Days  of  operation 

Average 

Relative 

Average 

Relative 

1890-1894 
1895-1899 
1900-1904 
1905-1909 
1910-1914 
1915-1919 

217,174 

251,739 

373,655 

492,144b 

561,866 

591,801 

100 
116 
172 
227 
259 
273 

211 
205 
223 
213 
216 
224 

100 
97 
106 
101 
102 
106 

•  Data  from  United  States  Geological  Survey,  Coal  in  1918,  Part  A,  Production,  p.  71 7,  and 
subsequent  publications.  v, 

*»  Average  for  four  years.    Data  for  1909  lacking. 

the  five-year  periods  varying  from  205  to  224  days  in  the  year. 
Again  the  facts  show  work  spread  thin  over  the  year  and  covering 
not  much  more  than  two-thirds  of  it.  Although  a  slight  increase 
is  shown  in  the  number  of  days  of  operation  during  the  period 
from  1915  to  1919  as  compared  with  1890  to  1894,  the  year  1921 
has  shown  the  greatest  loss  of  working  time  of  any  year  in  the 
last  three  decades. 

These  figures  are  for  the  country  as  a  whole.  In  Illinois,  as 
Table  5  shows,  the  opportunity  to  work  has  actually  decreased 
while  the  number  of  men  employed  has  more  than  doubled. 

TABLE  5.— AVERAGE  AND  RELATIVE  NUMBER  OF  EMPLOYES 
AND  DAYS  OF  OPERATION  FOR  BITUMINOUS  COAL  MINES 
IN  ILLINOIS  FROM  1890  TO  1919,  BY  FIVE-YEAR  PERIODS* 


Employes 

Days  of  operation 

Period 

Average 

Relative 

Average 

Relative 

1890-1894 

33,610 

100 

186 

100 

1895-1899 

36.251 

108 

173 

93 

1900-1904 

46,825 

139 

182 

98 

1905-1909 

66,400 

198 

178 

96 

1910-1914 

78,197 

233 

166 

89 

1915-1919 

82,937 

247 

169 

91 

*  Data  from  State  of  Illinois,  Department  of  Mines  and  Minerals.  Annual  Coal  Report. 
1919,  p.  100. 


N, 


TIB 


%. 


From  an  average  of  186  days  of  operation  of  the  mines  in  the 
five  years  from  1890  through  1894,  the  opportunity  to  work  and 
to  earn  fell  in  these  mines  to  169  in  the  five  years  from  1915 
through  1919,  while  in  that  period  the  number  of  miners  increased 
from  33,610  to  82,937.  The  increased  demand  for  labor  has  not 
lengthened  the  excessively  short  working  year. 

Intermittent  Employment  and  its  Causes 
The  data  given  in  several  tables  thus  far  in  the  discussion  have 
covered  long  periods  in  order  the  better  to  show  broad  tendencies 
as  measured  in  total  capacity  for  production,  numbers  employed, 
and  the  regularity  of  operation  of  mines.  These  statistics  have 
obscured  the  fluctuations  within  shorter  periods  which  reveal  the 
influence  of  general  business  depression,  and  of  seasonal  variation 
in  demand. 

Table  6  shows  the  number  of  days  lost  by  the  bituminous 
mining  industry  throughout  the  country  each  year  since  1890, 
and  Diagram  4  shows  in  graphic  form  the  days  of  mine  operation 
each  year.^ 

TABLE  6.— DAYS  LOST  BY  THE   BITUMINOUS  COAL  INDUSTRY 

EACH  YEAR,  1890  TO  1921a 


Year 

Days  lost 

Year 

Days  lost 

Year 

Days  lost 

1890 

78 

1901 

79 

1912 

81 

1891 

71 

1902 

74 

1913 

72 

1892 

85 

1903 

79 

/1914 

109 

/1 893 

100 

C1904 

102 

;  1915 

101 

11894 

133 

1905 

93 

1916 

74 

/l895 

110 

1906 

91 

1917 

61 

1  1896 

112 

1907 

70 

1918 

55 

^^4897 

108 

C1908 

111 

(-1919 
\l920 

109 

1898 

93 

1909 

89 

84b 

1899 

70 

1910 

87 

1921 

134b 

1900 

70 

1911 

93 

•  • 

•    m 

•  Based  on  figures  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  for  average  days  of  mine  operation, 
assuming  a  full  year  of  304  days.  The  figures  from  which  Table  6  has  been  derived  are  those 
for  average  days  of  mine  operation,  of  which  use  has  already  been  made  in  Tables  4  and  5  and 
in  Diagram  3.  The  days  lost  were  ascertained  by  subtracting  the  days  of  operation  from  the 
standard  of  a  full  operating  year  which  we  have  adopted,  that  is,  304  days. 

*»  Based  on  preliminary  figure  for  days  operated. 


*  In  Diagram  4  the  average  days  of  operation  each  year  are  illustrated  by 
the  upright  columns,  and  the  distance  between  the  tops  of  these  columns  and 
the  "full  year"  line  at  the  top  of  the  diagram  represents  the  number  of  idle 
days.  Both  in  the  diagram  and  in  Table  6  the  recurring  business  depressions 
of  the  last  three  decades  stand  out  conspicuously. 

22 


< 


I 


i 


Days 


Full  Tear 


^ 


^  - 


^ 


1^ 


Diagram  4. — Days  operated  by  bituminous  coal  mines  in  the  United  States 
each  year  from  1890  to  1921  compared  with  full  working  year 

The  statisticians  of  the  Geological  Survey  have  estimated  the 
relative  importance  of  the  various  causes  of  the  loss  of  time  in  the 
decades  from  1890  to  1919.  They  found  three  principal  factors 
and  measured  their  comparative  influence  as  shown  in  graphic 
form  in  Diagram  5. 

Per  cent  of  Total  Days  Lost 


Through  business  depression 


Through  over-development 


Through  seasonal  demand 


H 


Diagram  5. — Relative  importance  of  three  primary  causes  of  lost  time  as 
estimated  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 

23 


I      ! 


ml 


General  business  depression,  as  Diagram  5  shows,  is  estimated 
as  accountable  for  16  per  cent  of  the  loss  of  time  in  the  operation 
of  the  mines.  Over-development  accounts  for  37  per  cent,  and 
seasonal  fluctuation  for  47  per  cent,  of  the  lost  days.  The  effects 
of  general  depression  are  evident  in  Table  6  in  the  large  number  of 
idle  days  in  the  years  from  1893  to  1897,  in  1904, 1908, 1914, 1915, 
1919  and  1921.  Obviously  the  remedies  for  this  cause  of  idleness 
lie  largely  outside  the  coal  industry. 

"Only  a  sixth  of  the  time  lost  in  the  past  thirty  years  has  been 
due  to  this  cause,  however,"  said  Mr.  Tryon  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  commenting  upon  these  statistics.  "If  the  maximum 
effect  possible  is  allowed  for  these  secular  fluctations  there  is  still  a 
residue  of  lost  time — on  the  average  78  days*  per  year — ^which 
must  be  due  to  other  factors."*  This  residue,  as  shown  in  Dia- 
gram 5,  which  is  based  on  Mr.  Tryon 's  estimate,  he  would  attrib- 
ute to  over-development  and  seasonal  variations.  Over-devel- 
opment has  been  discussed  in  the  preceding  pages.  Seasonal 
fluctuations,  according  to  the  Geological  Survey,  account  for  an 
even  larger  loss  of  time. 

The  reader  may  be  surprised  to  find  in  this  analysis  no  reference 
to  "railroad  car  shortage,"  or  to  strikes  as  causes  of  idleness, 
since  these  are  named  frequently  in  the  public  press  as  the  chief 
troubles  of  both  operator  and  miner.  In  an  article  in  the  Survey 
Graphic,'  two  members  of  the  statistical  staff  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  explain  why  they  do  not  regard  car  shortage  and  strikes 
as  primary  causes  of  the  miners'  "broken  year." 

"Losses  due  to  strikes,"  they  say,  "are  spectacular  when  they 
occur,  and  in  the  last  20  years  have  mounted  up  to  the  enormous 
loss  of  125,000,000  man-days.*  But  the  time  lost  on  account  of 
strikes  is  only  10  per  cent  of  the  total  time  lost,  and  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  much  more  coal  would  have  been  produced 
in  the  aggregate  during  that  20  year  period  if  there  had  been  no 

^  Mr.  Tryon 's  standard  of  "a  theoretical  full  year"  is  308  days,  and  it  is 
with  this  number  in  mind  that  he  states  the  average  annual  loss  of  time  as  93 
days,  of  which  15  are  the  result  of  business  depression. 

*  Tryon,  F.  G.,  Irregular  Operation  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Industry;  in  the 
American  Economic  Review,  Supplement  to  Vol.  XI,  No.  1,  March,  1921,  p.  58. 

*  Tryon,  F.  G.,  and  McKenny,  W.  F.,  The  Broken  Year  of  the  Bituminous 
Miner,  "published  by  permission  of  the  director,  United  States  Geological 
Survey,"  Survey  Graphic,  March  25,  1922,  p.  1012. 

*  "Includes  strikes  in  the  anthracite  region  which  account  for  33,000,000 
man-days. " 

24 


< 


4 


vk 


Strikes.  ...  More  commonly  strikes  have  been  discounted 
in  advance  by  accumulating  large  reserves  of  storage  coal.  .  .  . 
In  terms  of  man-days  lost  because  of  strikes,  the  year  1910  was 
the  record.  Yet  it  also  set  a  new  record  of  production,  and  the 
average  sales  realization  f.  o.  b.  mine — the  best  index  of  prices, 
all  things  considered — did  not  differ  greatly  from  that  of  the  year 
before  nor  of  the  year  immediately  after.  Strikes  and  labor  dis- 
turbances, therefore,  like  car  shortage,  must  be  classed  as  second- 
ary rather  than  primary  causes  of  non-operation." 

Of  car  shortage  they  say:  "No  doubt  we  need  more  cars,  but 
simply  increasing  transportation  facilities  will  not  mend  the 
broken  year  of  the  coal  miner.  .  .  .  More  cars  .  .  . 
will  not  sell  more  coal.  They  will  merely  affect  the  distribution 
of  working  time  through  the  year,  tending  to  increase  it  in  the 
periods  of  peak  demand,  and  to  make  it  still  less  than  now  in 
periods  of  low  demand.  Car  shortages  have  occurred  not  in- 
frequently; but  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  rarely  have  they  curtailed 
the  actual  consumption  of  coal.  For  the  most  part  their  effect 
has  been  to  limit  the  quantity  of  coal  which  could  be  produced 
in  the  fall  and  winter,  thereby  forcing  some  consumers  to  pur- 
chase earlier  in  the  year."  Thus  in  the  opinion  of  these  experts 
car  shortage  is  merely  a  secondary  cause  of  lost  time  in  the  coal 
industry,  and  actually  tends  to  limit  extreme  fluctuations  in 
seasonal  production. 

Seasonal  Variations 

We  have  noted  that,  in  the  estimates  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  the  seasonal  demand  for  coal  is  the  cause  of 
the  largest  proportion  of  loss  in  working  time.  Records  of 
monthly  output,  which  are  available  for  the  country  as  a  whole 
from  the  year  1913,  will  serve  to  indicate  the  extent  of  the  fluc- 
tuations month  by  month  through  the  years.  Diagram  6  pictures 
these  variations  in  the  period  from  1913  through  1921. 

Both  seasonal  and  annual  variations  are  shown  in  Diagram  6. 
In  seven  of  the  nine  years  included  in  the  diagram  the  tendency  of 
production  to  fall  to  relatively  low  levels  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer is  clearly  shown.  It  is  to  be  recalled,  however,  that  this  is 
not  an  entirely  normal  period  because  it  includes  the  war  years. 
The  war  demand  buoyed  up  production  during  the  summers  of 
1917  and  1918,  and  the  fluctuations  in  those  years  were  much  less 

25 


/ 


<    .■ 


violent  than  in  the  so-called  "normal  years"  before  the  war  or 
in  the  period  since  the  armistice.  Table  7  shows  the  variations 
in  production  between  the  months  of  highest  and  lowest  output 
during  the  same  period  which  is  included  in  Diagram  6. 


Million 
tons 

60 


55 


50 


45 


40 


35 


30 


25 


20 


15 


10 


f 


4t 


1913 


1914 


1915 


1916 


1917 


1918 


1919 


1920 


1921 


Diagram  6. — Monthly  production  of  bituminous  coal  in  the  United  States, 

1913  to  1921 

The  month  of  October,  it  will  be  observed,  appears  five  times 
in  Table  7  as  the  highest  production  month,  while  the  month  of 
April  appears  five  times  as  the  month  of  lowest  production  dur- 
ing the  nine  years  from  1913  to  1921.  In  1917  and  1918  there 
was  continuous  demand  for  coal  due  to  war  production  and  the 
normal  seasonal  fluctuation  was  largely  obscured.  The  rela- 
tively low  output  of  coal  in  December,  1918,  followed  the  signing 

26 


of  the  armistice  in  November  and  was  also  the  effect  of  an  in- 
fluenza epidemic;  while  the  extremely  low  production  in  Novem- 
ber, 1919,  was  due  to  a  wide-spread  strike.  With  these  excep- 
tions, however,  the  figures  presented  in  this  table  may  be  read  as 
depicting  a  tendency  to  produce  coal  in  largest  quantities  in  the 
fall,  while  low  production  is  characteristic  of  the  spring.  The 
fluctuations  between  the  extremes  in  output  in  fall  and  spring 
are  wide.  For  instance,  in  the  year  1915,  over  16,000,000  more 
tons  were  produced  in  December  than  in  February,  and  in  1920 
and  1921  the  output  in  October  was  37  per  cent  higher  than  in  the 
preceding  April.  A  wide  variation  like  that  between  March  and 
April,  1914,  or  between  October  and  November,  1919,  appears 
to  be  due  to  the  stimulated  demand  for  coal  in  anticipation  of  a 
strike  in  connection  with  the  discussion  of  a  new  wage  agreement 
in  union  mines.  This  cause  of  fluctuations  will  be  discussed  more 
fully  later. 

TABLE  7.— BITUMINOUS  COAL  PRODUCED  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  IN  THE  MONTHS  OF  HIGHEST  AND  LOWEST  PRO- 
DUCTION EACH  YEAR  FROM  1913  TO  1921a 


Highest  month 

Lowest  month 

Excess  of  highest 
over  lowest 

Year 

Month 

Tons  pro- 
duced (in 
thousands) 

Month 

Tons  pro- 
duced (in 
thousands) 

Tons  (in 
thousands) 

Per 
cent 

1913 
1914 
1915 
1916 
1917 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1921 

October 

March 

December 

January 

October 

August 

October 

October 

October 

46,164 
45,455 
45,814 
46,593 
48,337 
55,114 
56,243 
52,144 
43,733 

April 

April 

February 

April 

February 

December 

November 

April 

April 

34,169 

23,609 

29,321 

33,628 

41,353 

40,184 

18,688b 

37,939 

27,553 

11,995 
21,846 
16,493 
12,965 
6,954 
14,930 
37,555 
14,205 
16,180 

35 
93 
56 
39 
17 
37 
201 
37 
37 

•  Data  from  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

*•  Low  production  in  November.  1919,  was  due  to  the  general  strike  in  the  bituminous 
industry  in  that  month. 

While  monthly  figures  for  the  entire  United  States  are  avail- 
able only  since  1913,  a  longer  record  of  monthly  figures  can  be 
secured  for  Illinois  mines.  The  data  for  the  eight  years  from  1906 
to  1913  inclusive  are  significant  because  all  the  abnormal  condi- 

27 


I 


4 

I 

I 


tions  of  the  period  of  the  war  and  afterward  are  excluded.  It  is  true 
that  Illinois  is  an  extreme  illustration  of  seasonal  variations  in  the 
bituminous  fields.  Most  of  the  eastern  districts  show  some  sea- 
sonal rhythm  but  the  range  from  high  to  low  is  less  marked  than  in 
the  Mississippi  valley  and  the  peak  does  not  always  come  in  the 
same  month.  Illinois  is  also  affected,  as  are  its  neighboring  states, 
by  the  fact  already  noted  that  the  most  violent  extremes  occur 
just  before  and  after  the  dates  of  expiration  of  the  biennial  wage 
agreements,  which  normally  occur  on  April  1st  in  the  "even 
years."  The  sequence  was  interrupted  during  the  war.  Table  8 
shows  the  comparative  output  in  the  mines  of  Illinois  each  month 
in  each  of  the  years  from  1906  to  1913,  when  seasonal  fluctuations 
were  unaffected  by  war  production. 

TABLE  8.— MONTHLY  PRODUCTION  OF  BITUMINOUS  COAL  BY 
SHIPPING  MINES  OF  ILLINOIS  FROM  1906  TO  1913* 


Month 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

1910 

1911 

1912 

1913 

Average 

Amount  in  Thousands  of  Tons 

January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

4.289 
4.336 
5,378 
392 
659 
2.556 
2,884 
3,245 
3.479 
4.283 
4.344 
4.613 

4.852 
4.255 
3,731 
3,572 
3.785 
3.394 
3.545 
4.113 
4.223 
5.279 
5.098 
4.837 

4.408 
4.567 
6,055 
1.401 
2.082 
3.463 
2.978 
3.809 
4.299 
5.020 
4.523 
4.748 

4.641 
4.108 
4.149 
3,470 
3.146 
3.067 
3.304 
^.739 
t.413 
5.235 
5.219 
5.243 

5.722 
5.552 
7.026 
24 
110 
1.637 
1.770 
2.414 
3.580 
5.451 
5.877 
5.769 

5,038 
3,957 
4,209 
3,671 
3,549 
3.474 
3.688 
4.449 
4.583 
4.293 
5,«00 
5,810 

6,005 
6,435 
7.836 
43 
2.890 
3.365 
3.914 
4.857 
4,944 
6.318 
6.125 
6.370 

6,020 
4.941 
4.965 
4.263 
3.924 
3.875 
4.347 
4.692 
5.360 
6.358 
6.152 
5.862 

5.122 
4.769 
5,419 
2.104 
2.518 
3.104 
3.304 
3.915 
4.360 
5.280 
5.380 
5.406 

Total 

40.458 

50.684 

47.353 

49.734 

44,932 

52,421 

59,102 

60.759 

50.681 

Per  cent  of  Annual  Production 

January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

10.6 

10.7 

13.3 

1.0 

1.6 

6.3 

7.1 

8.0 

8.6 

10.6 

10.8 

11.4 

9.6 
8.4 
7.4 
7.0 
7.5 
6.7 
7.0 
8.1 
8.3 
10.4 
10.1 
9.5 

9.3 
9.6 

12.8 
3.0 
4.4 
7.3 
6.3 
8.0 
9.1 

10.6 
9.6 

10.0 

9.3 

8.3 

8.3 

7.0 

6.3 

6.2 

6.7 

7.5 

8.9 

10.5 

10.5 

10.5 

12.7 

12.4 

15.6 

.1 

.3 

3.6 

3.9 

5.4 

8.0 

12.1 

13.1 

12.8 

9.6 
7.6 
8.0 
7.0 
6.8 
6.6 
7.0 
8.5 
8.7 
8.2 
10.9 
11.1 

10.1 

10.9 

13.2 

.1 

4.9 

5.7 

6.6 

8.2 

8.4 

10.7 

10.4 

10.8 

9.9 
^8.1 
8.2 
7.0 
6.5 
6.4 
7.2 
7.7 
8.8 
10.5 
10.1 
9.6 

10.1 

9.4 

10.7 

4.2 

5.0 

6.1 

6.5 

7.7 

8.6 

10.4 

10.6 

10.7 

Total 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

•  Data  from  State  of  Illinois.  State  Mining 
Minerals).  Annual  Coal  Reports.  1906  to  1914. 

28 


Board  (now  Department  of  Mines  and 


V 


4i 


I 


Table  8  shows  that  in  Illinois  production  and  employment  are 
concentrated  in  the  winter  months.  The  average  annual  pro- 
duction of  bituminous  coal  in  Illinois  in  the  eight  years  covered 
in  Table  8  was,  in  round  numbers,  50,681,000  net  tons.  Over 
three-fifths  of  this  tonnage,  namely,  62  per  cent,  was  produced  in 
the  six  months  of  January,  February,  March,  October,  Novem- 
ber and  December;  while  the  remaining  38  per  cent  was  taken 
out  of  the  mines  in  the  slacker  months  of  April,  May,  June,  July, 
August  and  September.  Inevitably  for  the  miner  this  means 
lost,  or  reduced,  opportunities  to  earn  during  the  year.  The 
mines  in  Illinois  were  equipped  with  men  and  machinery  for  an 
average  maximum  production  of  nearly  five  and  a  half  million 
tons  in  the  busy  fall  and  winter  month,  while  their  average 
monthly  production  was  a  little  less  than  four  and  a  quarter 
million,  and  the  average  in  the  month  of  least  demand,  April, 
was  little  more  than  two  million. 

To  attribute  all  of  this  difference  between  the  extremes  in 
March  and  April  to  seasonal  variations  in  the  demand  for  coal, 
however,  would  not  be  accurate.  It  ignores  the  effect  of  the 
biennial  wage  adjustment,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made.  In  Diagram  7  two  sets  of  facts  are  shown  for  comparison : 
(1)  the  average  monthly  production  in  the  entire  period,  as  al- 
ready given  in  Table  8;  and  (2)  the  average  monthly  production 
in  the  four  alternating  years  when  wage  adjustments  were  not  due. 

Comparison  of  the^averages  in  the  odd  and  even  years  shows 
that  in  the  "even"  years  of  biennial  negotiation  the  swing  up  or 
down  from  average  production  is  much  greater  than  in  the  "odd" 
years,  when  seasonal  demand  is  not  accentuated  by  forced  buying 
in  anticipation  of  a  strike.  With  revision  of  wages  expected  on 
April  first  every  other  year,  the  abnormal  buying  of  coal  forces  up 
production  in  March  and  earlier,  while  output  is  correspondingly 
decreased  in  April  and  May,  even  though  no  strike  occurs.^  The 
lower  portion  of  the  diagram  which  eliminates  this  disturbing 
factor  may  be  said  to  picture  accurately  the  seasonal  variations. 


*  In  a  statement  issued  for  the  newspapers  by  the  Bureau  of  the  Census  of 
the  Federal  Department  of  Commerce  on  March  23,  1922,  appears  this  para- 
graph :  "Coal  production  continued  to  increase  during  the  second  month  of  the 
year.  Even  with  the  smaller  number  of  working  days  the  output  of  bitum- 
inous coal  was  3,000,000  tons  greater  than  in  January.  This  increase  was  in 
response  to  the  demand  for  consumers'  stocks  in  case  of  prolonged  labor  diffi- 
culties." 

29 


'V 


■u> 


f 


s. 


4 


Jan.      Feb.    March    April     May    June      July     Aug.     Sept.     Oct.     Nov.     Dec 

Average  Monthly  Production  in  Per  Cent  of  Totel  Annual  Production  in  Eight  Years. 

1906  to  191 J  • 


_, March  AiMril 

Average  Monthly  Production  in  Per  Cent  of  Total  Annual  Production  ''^/.^^^"^'^^^* 
1M7. 1909.  1911.  and  1913.  in  which  the  Biennial  Wage  Adjustment  did  not  Occur 

Diajrram  7.— Seasonal  fluctuation  in  the  production  of  bituminous  coal  in 

Illinois  mines,  1906  to  1913 
30 


Seasonal  variations  in  the  coal  industry  and  the  remedies  for 
them  have  been  discussed  frequently  by  engineers  and  official 
commissions.  These  comprise  such  measures  as  storage  at  the 
place  of  use  to  make  purchases  feasible  in  advance  of  need,  and 
lower  freight  rates  from  the  mines  during  months  of  least  con- 
sumption in  order  to  encourage  buying.  Seasonal  variations 
constitute  a  major  cause  of  irregular  employment.  The  increased 
demand  in  winter  tends  to  keep  more  men  in  the  industry  than 
would  be  needed  if  the  work  were  more  evenly  distributed 
throughout  the  year.  This  excess  in  numbers  of  men  employed 
tends  in  turn  to  make  employment  irregular  and  uncertain,  re- 
gardless of  variations  in  market  demands.  It  is  important  to 
realize  that  increased  storage  facilities,  reduced  transportation 
rates  during  the  slack  months,  and  other  means  of  eliminating  sea- 
sonal fluctuations,  desirable  as  these  improvements  are,  would  not 
wholly  regularize  the  operation  of  the  coal  industry.  From  esti- 
mates of  the  Geological  Survey  already  quoted  it  is  shown  that 
seasonal  fluctuations  are  responsible  for  47  in  every  100  days  of 
idleness  in  the  mines  during  a  year,  but  37  in  every  100  are  lost 
through  what  the  Geological  Survey  calls  "sheer  over-develop- 
ment." These  estimates  are  more  or  less  speculative,  because  the 
three  big  problems  of  seasonal  demand,  over-development,  and 
recurrent  business  depressions  are  so  related  to  one  another  that 
the  effect  of  each  on  the  industry  cannot  be  accurately  deter- 
mined. It  is  safe  to  conclude,  however,  that  the  soft  coal  industry 
is  functioning  irregularly,  and  that  its  instability  causes  unem- 
ployment and  uncertainty  for  the  men  who  earn  their  living  in 
digging  coal. 

Instability  affects  also  the  efficiency  of  the  coal  business  and 
tends  to  raise  the  price  of  coal  and  hence  the  cost  of  all  articles 
dependent  upon  coal  for  manufacture  or  transportation.  So  little 
information  is  available,  however,  on  the  various  factors  entering 
into  the  price  of  coal  that  it  is  possible  only  to  suggest,  but  not  to 
demonstrate  the  effect  of  instability  in  bituminous  coal  mining 
upon  business  in  general.  That  the  coal  miner  and  his  wife  and 
children  are  the  first  to  feel  the  effects  of  this  irregular  functioning 
of  the  industry  needs  no  elaborate  proof,  despite  the  fact  that 
data  on  earnings  are  as  meagre  as  are  many  other  relevant  facts 
about  the  coal  industry. 


31 


V 


Earnings  of  Bituminous  Miners 
Facts  about  miners'  earnings,  and  the  suflFering  which  unem- 
ployment causes,  can  be  understood  only  if  conditions  of  life 
in  a  mining  camp  are  known.  In  many  mining  communities 
the  mine  is  the  only  place  of  employment.  To  find  another  job 
in  dull  periods  means  moving  to  another  town.  Moreover,  a 
miner's  family  lacks  the  economic  safeguards  of  life  in  a  com- 
munity with  several  varied  industries,  in  which  other  members 
of  the  family,  including  wife  and  daughters,  find  work  to  help  to 
secure  the  necessary  income.  However  desirable,  or  undesirable, 
the  employment  of  women  and  young  girls  outside  the  home  may 
seem  to  the  public,  it  is  still  the  means  of  maintaining  the 
households  of  many  wage-earners,  when  dependence  upon  the 
insecure  employment  of  one  bread-winner  in  a  seasonal  indus- 
try becomes  too  hazardous.  For  many  coal  miners,  this  resource 
is  lacking.  The  industry  necessarily  becomes  responsible  for 
insuring  sufficient  income  to  the  men  in  the  mines  to  maintain 
their  families  throughout  the  year.  This  fact  must  never  be 
forgotten  when  comparisons  are  made  between  the  rates  paid  in 
mining  and  those  in  other  industries. 

What,  then,  are  the  earnings  of  miners  in  the  bituminous  coal 
industry,  and  what  effect  has  the  irregular  operation  of  the  indus- 
try upon  the  miner's  annual  income? 

Available  facts  concerning  actual  earnings  are  incomplete.  The 
Geological  Survey  collects  data  on  production,  but  does  not 
include  wage  statistics  in  its  reports.  Special  inquiries  into 
wages  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  but  these  have  been  limited  to  comparatively  few 
mines  and  have  not  covered  a  period  as  long  as  a  year. 


< 


Miners'  Statistics  of  Earnings 

Information  concerning  annual  earnings  was  presented  to  the 
President's  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  in  1920  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  miners,  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America.  These 
facts  related  to  the  union  scale  of  wages  as  agreed  upon  in  con- 
tracts between  the  United  Mine  Workers  and  the  operators' 
associations  in  the  unionized  central  competitive  field,  which 
includes  the  states  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio  and  the  western  part 
of  Pennsylvania.  Non-union  mines  were  not  included.  As  the 
material  was  compiled  before  the  increase  in  wages  which  fol- 

32 


'\fi 


'S. 


lowed  the  award  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Commission,  it  does  not 
show  the  earnings  under  the  wage  scale  in  effect  from  1920  to 
1922  and  similar  data  are  not  available  for  this  period.^  The 
main  point  in  which  we  are  interested,  however,  is  the  effect  of 
instability  and  irregularity  of  employment  upon  the  miners* 
earnings,  and  for  light  on  this  point  a  comparison  of  actual  and 
possible  earnings  in  the  years  from  1913  to  1918  is  as  useful  as  if 
it  covered  the  most  recent  period. 

The  wage  data  presented  to  the  Bituminous  Coal  Commission 
by  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America^  were  based  on  the 
amounts  paid  as  dues  to  the  organization  by  its  members  in  the 
bituminous  mines.  Through  the  offices  of  the  coal  companies  by 
the  so-called  "check-off"  system,  the  local  unions  of  the  miners  in 
the  various  districts  collect  from  their  members  a  percentage  of 
their  gross  earnings  for  the  support  of  the  national  organization. 
This  assessment  affords  a  basis  for  calculating  the  annual  average 
gross  earnings  of  the  miners.  Out  of  his  gross  earnings  the  miner 
must  pay  for  powder,  and  for  certain  other  expenses  in  connection 
with  his  work.  The  actual  contents  of  his  pay  envelope  are,  there- 
fore, less  than  the  gross  earnings  upon  which  the  union  dues  are 
calculated. 

Table  9  shows  annual  earnings  as  computed  by  the  United 
Mine  Workers  from  assessments  and  size  of  membership  in  each 
of  the  four  districts  constituting  the  central  competitive  field,  and 
also  the  average  number  of  days  of  mine  operation  in  these 
districts  as  given  by  the  Geological  Survey  for  the  six  years  from 
1913  through  1918. 

The  average  annual  earnings  for  the  period  of  six  years  in 
Western  Pennsylvania,  where  they  were  highest,  were  only  $988. 
In  the  war  year  of  1918,  when  the  days  of  operation  were  at  a 
maximum  of  260,'  the  average  earnings  in  that  district  were 


*  In  a  forthcoming  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
data  on  earnings  in  this  period  will  appear,  but  they  are  not  available  as  this 
manuscript  goes  to  press. 

'  The  same  data  were  presented  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Manufactures 
in  the  hearings  on  the  Caider  coal  regulation  bill,  in  testimony  by  William 
Green,  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America.  His 
testimony  has  been  published  by  the  union  in  a  pamphlet, — Statement  of 
William  Green,  International  Secretary-Treasurer,  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America,  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Manufactures,  January  24,  1921. 

*  The  reason  for  the  larger  number  of  days  of  operation  in  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, not  only  in  the  war  period  but  in  every  year  considered  in  Table  9,  in  com- 

33 


vm*^ 


$1,583.   Indiana  miners  came  next  in  that  year  with  an  average  of 
$1,5 16,  while  in  Illinois  the  men  averaged  $1,390  and  in  Ohio  $1,364. 

TABLE  9.— AVERAGE  ANNUAL  EARNINGS  OF  MINERS  AND  AVER- 
AGE  DAYS  OF  MINE  OPERATION  IN  THE  FOUR  DISTRICTS 
OF  THE  CENTRAL  COMPETITIVE  FIELD,  1913  TO  1918 


Western 
Pennsylvania 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Ohio 

Year 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

Aver- 

age 

age 

age 

age 

age 

age 

age 

age 

annual 

days 

annual 

days 

annual 

days 

annual 

days 

earn- 

oper- 

earn- 

oper- 

earn- 

oper- 

earn- 

oper- 

ings 

ated 

ings 

ated 

ings 

ated 

ings 

ated 

1913 

$867 

237 

$705 

189 

$708 

190 

$766 

206 

1914 

776 

207 

650 

173 

630 

168 

405 

108  » 

1915 

781 

210 

672 

179 

672 

179 

528 

142 

1916 

895 

229 

775 

198 

732 

187 

771 

197 

1917 

1,027 

251 

995 

243 

904 

221 

859 

210 

1918 

1,583 

260 

1,390 

228 

1,516 

249 

1,364 

224 

Average 

$988 

232 

$865 

201 

$860 

199 

$782 

181 

i 


*  Low  number  of  days  operated  in  Ohio  in  1914  is  partly  explained  by  the  strike  in  Ohio 
mines  in  that  year. 

The  average  annual  earnings  varied  from  state  to  state  with 
differences  in  the  number  of  days  of  mine  operation.  The  simple 
average  for  the  six  years  was  lowest  in  Ohio,  $782  with  181  days 
of  operation,  as  compared  with  Indiana's  $860  and  199  days, 
Illinois'  $865  and  201  days,  and  the  maximum  of  $988  and  232 
days  in  Western  Pennsylvania. 

Differences  from  year  to  year  in  days  of  operation  are  also  re- 
flected directly  in  differences  in  earnings.  In  the  period  covered  in 
Table  9,  the  miners  of  the  central  competitive  field  received  in- 
creases in  their  rates  of  pay  in  1914,  1916,  and  twice  in  1917.  In 
spite  of  the  increase  in  rates  in  1914,  the  average  wages  were 
lower  in  1914  and  in  1915  than  they  had  been  in  1913.  This  was 
evidently  because  the  days  of  mine  operation  decreased  in  1914 
and  1915  owing  to  the  business  depression  in  those  years.     The 

parison  with  other  states,  is  probably  the  wider  market  for  coal  of  this  district, 
which  includes  Canada,  New  England,  and  the  entire  Atlantic  seaboard,  as  well 
as  the  iron,  steel  and  other  industries  of  Pennsylvania. 

34 


i 


\. 


V 


significant  point  is  that  the  average  annual  income  of  miners,  like 
that  of  wage-earners  in  other  irregular  industries,  is  reduced  by 
lack  of  opportunity  for  employment,  and  irregularity  of  work  may 
more  than  nullify  increases  in  rates  of  pay.  This  should  not  be 
understood  to  mean  that  increases  in  rates  of  pay  are  unimportant 
to  the  miner,  or  that  he  can  be  indifferent  to  decreases.  Quite  the 
contrary  is  true.  The  fact  that  he  works  so  much  less  than  full 
time  is  his  justification  for  seeking  higher  rates. 

Aside  from  the  effect  of  irregular  employment  upon  earnings, 
which  Table  9  has  been  used  to  indicate,  the  facts  are  important 
as  showing  actual  annual  income.  To  be  sure  they  are  averages, 
and  they  are  compiled  by  one  side  in  the  wage  controversy,  the 
miners.  How  closely  they  correspond  to  the  operators'  figures 
will  be  shown  later.  Meanwhile  it  is  interesting  to  compare  them 
with  data  for  1919  derived  from  the  United  States  Census.  These 
are  for  the  same  states,  except  that  the  census  figures  are  for  the 
whole  of  Pennsylvania  and  not  merely  the  western  district.  In 
1919,  according  to  these  calculations,  the  average  earnings  of  the 
miners  in  Pennsylvania  was  $1,318  and  the  days  of  operation  218; 
in  Illinois  $1,110  in  160  days;  in  Indiana  $1,062  in  148  days;  and 
in  Ohio  $1,102  in  164  days.i 

These  earnings  are  distinctly  lower  for  each  state  than  those 
given  by  the  union  for  1918.  The  year  1918  was  more  prosper- 
ous for  the  miner  than  1919,  because  he  had  more  days  of  work 
and  this  would  account  mainly  for  the  differences.  Certainly  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  union  understated  the  miners*  earnings 
in  order  to  make  a  case  for  an  increase.  The  data  both  from  the 
union  and  from  the  United  States  Census  give  no  evidence  of  high 
annual  earnings,  even  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  where  the  earn- 
ings were  highest.^ 

In  order  to  picture  the  effect  upon  income  of  the  loss  of  so  many 
working  days,  which  characterizes  the  industry,  the  facts  about 

» Fourteenth  Census  of  the  United  States,  Mines  and  Quarries,  1919,  Bulle- 
tins for  Pennsylvania,  pp.  16  and  17;  Ohio,  pp.  6  and  7;  Indiana,  pp.  10  and  11; 
Illinois,  pp.  14  and  15.  The  average  earnings  were  ascertained  by  dividing  the 
total  wages  paid  in  the  year  by  the  average  number  of  wage-earners  in  10  months, 
January  to  October,  1919.  This  avoided  the  months  affected  by  the  strike, 
November  and  December,  1919,  when  the  number  employed  was  not  normal. 
The  data  on  days  of  operation  were  supplied  by  the  Geological  Survey. 

'  Earnings  are  affected  by  conditions  in  the  mines,  such  as  thickness  of  the 
seam  of  coal,  efficiency  of  machinery,  availability  of  mine  cars,  etc.  To 
some  degree  conditionsare  equalized  by  the  differentials  in  rates  which  are  agreed 
upon  in  applying  the  general  wage  scale  to  a  particular  district. 

35 


<^  tv 


.  Iji  1 


V  '  'f 


^Il 


average  annual  earnings  in  Table  9  are  used  as  the  basis  for  esti- 
mating the  difference  between  the  income  which  the  miners 
actually  earned  and  that  which  they  would  have  received  had 
they  worked  304  days,  losing  no  time  because  of  the  failure  of  the 
mine  to  operate.  It  should  be  pointed  out  that  since  Table  9  shows 
the  average  earnings,  which  were  actually  received  by  the  miners, 
allowance  is  already  made  in  those  averages  for  all  causes  of  lost 
working  time,  whether  due  to  the  idleness  of  the  mine  or  to  the 
absence  of  the  miner  from  work  for  illness  or  other  personal  rea- 
sons. These  averages  include  the  earnings  of  men  who  were  not 
employed  regularly  every  day  when  the  mine  was  in  operation. 
In  every  wage-earning  group  days  are  lost  through  sickness, 
through  change  of  job  from  one  place  of  employment  to  another, 
or  through  other  personal  causes.  The  days  of  employment  shown 
in  Table  9  were  not  days  worked  by  the  men  but  days  when  the 
mines  were  open  for  work.  How  many  days  of  work  these  miners 
in  the  central  competitive  field  actually  put  in,  we  do  not  know, 
but  the  amount  which  the  men  individually  failed  to  earn  through 
not  working  every  day  when  coal  was  coming  over  the  tipple  is 
already  discounted  in  the  averages  of  actual  earnings.  If  then, 
from  these  statistics  of  the  wages  actually  received  by  the  men  in 
the  specified  days  of  mine  operation,  the  possible  earnings  be  esti- 
mated for  a  full-time  working  year  of  304  days,  the  difference  be- 
tween actual  and  possible  earnings  represents  fairly  though  roughly 
the  tax  upon  the  miners*  income  made  solely  by  the  idleness  of 
the  mine. 

The  result  of  this  estimate  of  possible  full-time  earnings  as 
shown  in  Table  10  should  be  regarded  merely  as  a  viv\d  picture  of 
what  irregular  employment  means  in  reduced  earnings.  It  has 
all  the  weakness  of  trying  to  prophesy  what  might  happen  if  con- 
ditions of  employment  were  radically  different.  Actually,  greater 
stability  might  produce  even  more  startling  possibilities  in  in- 
creased output  for  the  miner,  or  wage  rates  might  be  decreased 
without  any  disadvantage  to  the  miner  provided  his  opportunity 
for  employment  were  substantially  increased  and  made  more 
certain.  Thus  Table  10  becomes  a  measure  of  present  waste 
rather  than  a  prophecy  of  a  future  possibility. 

According  to  Table  10,  the  miners  in  Illinois  earned  in  the  year 
1913  only  62  per  cent  of  the  amount  which  would  have  been  possi- 
ble had  they  dug  as  much  coal  per  day  in  304  days  as  they  dug  in 

36 


V 


the  189  days  when  the  mines  were  open.  They  actually  averaged 
about  $705  in  annual  earnings.  At  the  same  rates  of  pay  and  with 
the  same  regularity  on  their  part,  with  full-time  operation  of  the 
mines,  they  might  have  averaged  $1,134.  The  difference  was 
$429  in  the  year.  In  Western  Pennsylvania,  where  the  mines 
were  open  for  work  the  largest  number  of  days  in  the  year,  237  in 
1913,  the  estimated  difference  for  each  man  was  $246.  In  1918, 
which  was  the  year  of  maximum  production  during  the  war,  the 
days  of  mine  operation  were  decidedly  higher  than  in  1913. 

TABLE  10.— ACTUAL  EARNINGS  AND  ESTIMATED  FULL  YEAR 
EARNINGS  OF  MINERS  IN  THE  FOUR  DISTRICTS  OF  THE 
CENTRAL  COMPETITIVE  FIELD  IN  1913  AND  IN  1918 


District 


Average 

annual 

earnings 


Days  of 

mine 
operation 


Average 
earnings 
per  day 
of  mine 
operation 


Possible 

earnings 

at  this 

rate  in 

304  days 


Difference 

between 

actual 

and  full 

year 
earnings 


Per  cent 
actual 

earnings 
are  of 

full  year 

earnings 


1913 


Illinois 
Indiana 

$705 
708 

189 
190 

$3.73 
3.73 

$1,134 
1,134 

$429 
426 

62 
62 

Ohio 

766 

206 

3.72 

1,131 

365 

68 

Western  Pa. 

867 

237 

3.66 

1,113 

246 

78 

Illinois 
Indiana 
Ohio 
Western  Pa. 


1918 

$6.10 

$1,854 

$464 

75 

6.09 

1,851 

335 

82 

6.09 

1,851 

487 

74 

6.09 

1,851 

268 

86 

Nevertheless,  though  higher  basic  rates  and  more  regular  work 
resulted  in  higher  average  earnings  in  1918  than  in  1913,  the  days 
of  operation  were  still  considerably  less  than  a  full  working  year, 
and  the  actual  earnings  were  less  than  the  estimated  possible 
earnings  for  304  days  by  $268  per  miner  in  Western  Pennsylvania, 
$335  in  Indiana,  $464  in  Illinois,  and  $487  in  Ohio.  The  estimated 
possible  annual  earnings  in  1918  were  $1,854  in  Illinois  and  $1,851 
in  each  of  the  other  districts. 

Operators*  Statistics  of  Earnings 
The  National  Coal  Association,  on  behalf  of  the  operators, 
submitted  to  the  President's  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  data 

37 


1 1 


li 


il 


/ 


^l 


regarding  the  earnings  of  miners  in  certain  selected  mines  in  the 
ten  months  from  January  to  October,  1919.  These  mines  were 
located  in  the  same  districts,  the  central  competitive  field,  for 
which  the  statistics  of  the  union  were  given  though  they  were  not 
for  the  same  year.  The  operators  stated  that  many  of  the  men 
did  not  take  full  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  work  while  the 
mines  were  open  and  that  this  voluntary  idleness  accounted  for 
low  earnings.  In  their  statistical  tables  they  classified  the  earn- 
ings separately  for  several  groups,  according  to  the  regularity  of 
their  attendance  at  work  on  days  when  the  mines  were  operating. 
The  number  of  calendar  days  each  mine  loaded  coal  was  taken  as 
"  100  per  cent  opportunity  for  labor  to  work."  A  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  men  in  each  occupation  were  recorded  as  "working 
more  days  than  the  mine  loaded  coal,"  which  means  that  these 
men  worked  in  the  mine  every  day  of  mine  operation  and  also  on 
days  when  coal  was  not  being  hauled  out. 

The  operators'  figures  were  for  daily  and  monthly  earnings, 
classified  to  show  the  "  percentage  of  full  opportunity  "  which  each 
group  worked.  We  have  compiled  from  the  tables,  which  the 
operators  submitted,  figures  showing  the  earnings  of  those  men 
only  who  worked  "more  days  than  the  mine  loaded  coal."  The 
average  daily  earnings  of  this  group  were  closely  similar  to  those 
of  the  group  "working  from  75  to  100  per  cent  of  full  oppor- 
tunity," but  they  were  distinctly  higher  than  the  daily  earnings  of 
the  men  who  worked  less  regularly  during  the  time  that  the  mines 
were  operating.  We  have  used  in  Table  11  the  average  earnings 
of  the  group  working  at  least  all  the  days  the  mines  were  open, 
because  their  wages  presumably  show  the  maximum  opportunity 
for  earnings  offered  to  the  men  by  these  mines  in  1919. 

According  to  the  table,  the  machine  miners,  who  are  relatively 
few  in  number,  had  the  highest  earnings  and  they  averaged  daily 
$7.07  in  these  fields.  The  hand  miners  averaged  $6.34  daily,  the 
loaders  $5.99  and  the  day  laborers  inside  the  mine  $5.13.  The 
highest  average  in  any  field  included  in  the  table  for  machine 
miners  working  "full  opportunity"  was  $8.72  a  day  and  the  low- 
est, $5.32.  Hand  miners  averaged  $7.28  daily  in  the  best  field, 
and  $4.90  in  the  field  of  lowest  average  earnings. 

The  union's  figures  showed  a  daily  average  for  all  occupations 
in  1918  of  $6.09  in  three  states  and  $6.10  in  the  fourth.  The 
operators  did  not  give  a  general  average  for  all  occupations  but 

38 


the  range  of  their  averages  for  the  four  groups  of  "inside"  mine 
employes  in  1 1  sub-divisions  of  the  central  competitive  field  was 
from  $4.86  to  $8.72  for  those  groups  only  who  worked  the  full 
time  that  the  mines  were  open.  The  resemblance  between  the 
operators*  figures  and  the  daily  averages  obtained  in  Table  10 
from  the  union  data  is  sufficiently  close  to  indicate  that  the  union 
did  not  underestimate  the  annual  earnings.  In  making  this  com- 
parison of  daily  earnings  in  1918  and  1919  it  should  be  recalled 
that  the  wage  rates  remained  the  same  during  those  two  years. 

TABLE  11.— AVERAGE  DAILY  EARNINGS  OF  MINERS  WORKING 
FULL  OPPORTUNITY  DURING  THE  TEN  MONTHS,  JANUARY 
TO  OCTOBER,  1919,  IN  SELECTED  MINES  IN  THE  FIELDS 
COMPRISING  THE  CENTRAL  COMPETITIVE  FIELD,  BY 
FIELDS  » 


Field 

Number 
of 

Hand 

Loaders 

Machine 

■ 

Inside 
day 

mines 

miners 

mmers 

labor 

Pittsburgh  Thick  Vein 

7 

$7.15 

$5.77 

$8.04 

$5.21 

Pittsburgh  Thin  Vein 

14 

6.02 

5.90 

6.80 

5.23 

Eastern  Ohio 

18 

6.06 

5.55 

6.15 

5.22 

Southern  Ohio 

32 

7.28 

5.95 

7.04 

5.04 

Indiana 

23 

7.20 

6.93 

7.47 

5.21 

Southern  Illinois 

15 

•  • 

7.14 

7.88 

5.37 

Southern  Springfield 

9 

6.53 

6.62 

7.60 

5.04 

Northern  Springfield 

9 

5.54 

5.56 

5.32 

5.05 

Fulton-Peoria 

6 

6.23 

5.41 

8.72 

5.01 

Northern  Illinois 

4 

4.90 

4.86 

6.40 

4.89 

Fifth  and  Ninth  Districts,  111. 

• 

13 

6.46 

6.22 

6.36 

5.18 

Average  11  fields 

•  • 

$6.34 

$5.99 

$7.07 

$5.13 

Highest  field 

•  • 

7.28 

7.14 

8.72 

5.37 

Lowest  field 

•  • 

4.90 

4.86 

5.32 

4.89 

Annual  earnings  at  these  rates  in  249  days,  the  average  number 
of  days  bituminous  mines  in  the  United  States  operated  in  1918 


Average  11  fields 
Highest  field 
Lowest  field 


•    • 

$1579 

$1492 

$1760 

■    • 

1813 

1778 

2171 

•   • 

1220 

1210 

1325 

$1277 
1337 
1218 


•  Compiled  from  tables  furnished  by  the  Bureau  of  Coal  Economics.  National  Coal  Associa- 
tion, showing  average  daily  earnings  as  reported  by  the  operators  of  selected  mines  in  each  field, 
by  occupations,  and  by  percentage  of  full  opportunity  worked.  The  number  of  days  each  mine 
operated  is  counted  as  full  opportunity. 

The  operators  made  no  statement  of  annual  earnings.    If  their 
daily  averages  be  multiplied  by  the  average  days  of  mine  opera- 

39 


^      A    V 


tion  in  1918/  as  is  done  at  the  bottom  of  Table  11,  the  resulting 
range  of  average  annual  earnings  is  from  a  maximum  of  $2,171  for 
the  most  regularly  employed  of  the  machine  miners  in  the  field  of 
highest  earnings  to  $1,210  for  the  loaders  in  the  field  of  lowest 
earnings;  while  the  average  in  all  fields  is  $1,579  for  hand  miners 
and  $1,492  for  loaders. 

Absenteeism 
The  chief  difference  in  the  testimony  regarding  earnings 
offered  by  operators  and  union  officials  to  the  President's  Bitu- 
minous Coal  Commission  was  that  the  operators  stressed  the 
effect  of  voluntary  idleness  of  the  miner,  which  they  contended 
was  the  chief  reason  for  low  earnings.  We  have  already  noted 
that  in  their  statistics  of  earnings  the  operators  classified  the  daily 
wages  according  to  the  time  which  the  miners  worked  in  pro- 
portion to  the  days  the  mines  were  open.    Table  12  shows  the 

TABLE  12.— ADVANTAGE  TAKEN  OF  FULL  OPPORTUNITY  TO 
WORK  BY  EMPLOYES  IN  SELECTED  BITUMINOUS  COAL 
MINES  IN  THE  CENTRAL  COMPETITIVE  FIELD  IN  THE  TEN 
MONTHS.  JANUARY  TO  OCTOBER,  1919 


Average  number  of  men  working  specified  portion 
of  days  the  mines  loaded  coal  each  month 

Less 
than  25 
per  cent 

25  to  49 
per  cent 

50  to  74 
per  cent 

75  to  100 
per  cent 

More 
than  100 
per  cent 

Total 

Miners 
Company  men 

1,650 
1,158 

2,989 
1,126 

3,457 
1,005 

16,808 
4,329 

1,677 
7,030 

26,581 
14,648 

Per  cent 


Miners 
Company  men 


6.2 

7.9 

11.3 
7.7 

13.0 
6.9 

63.2 
29.5 

6.3 

48.0 

100.0 
100.0 


proportion  of  miners  and  of  "company  men"  who  worked  the 
various  percentages  of  "full  opportunity,"  according  to  the 
operators'  reports.  Miners  here  include  only  the  men  who  dig 
coal, — the  hand  and  machine  miners  and  the  loaders.  "  Company 
men"  are  the  other  groups  of  mine  employes  who  are  paid  at 
daily  or  monthly  rates. 

*  The  year  1918  is  used  in  order  to  make  possible  comparison  with  the  figures 
given  by  the  union  for  that  year. 

40 


V 


Thus,  the  group  who  worked  more  days  than  the  mines  loaded 
coal,  and  for  whom  the  statistics  of  earnings  have  already  been 
given,  constituted  6.3  per  cent  of  the  miners,  but  nearly  half  of 
the  company  men.  The  largest  group  of  miners  worked  75  to  100 
per  cent  of  the  days  that  the  mines  were  open. 

A  special  inquiry  would  be  necessary  to  analyze  the  causes  of 
absenteeism.  The  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  in  its  final  re- 
port to  the  President  pointed  out  a  weakness  in  these  figures  of 
the  operators,  and  made  the  following  comment  upon  them : 

"The  contention  of  the  operators  has  been  that  the  miners 
do  not  make  full  use  of  the  opportunities  for  labor  afforded 
them  and  that  those  of  the  miners  who  work  at  least  three- 
fourths  of  the  available  time  earn  sufficient  wages.  In  support 
of  this  contention  the  operators  submitted  figures  collected 
from  a  representative  number  of  mines  showing  the  number 
of  men  working  each  specified  number  of  days,  with  their 
daily  and  monthly  wages. 

"We  realize  that  a  certain  proportion  of  time  is  lost  by  the 
miners  voluntarily.  At  the  same  time,  we  find  that  the 
figures  submitted  by  the  operators  do  not  afford  a  measure 
of  the  amount  of  time  so  lost  by  the  miners,  for  the  reason 
that  these  figures  make  no  allowance  for  the  turnover.  In 
these  tabulations  every  man  who  worked  at  a  mine  at  any 
time  during  the  month  is  counted  on  the  same  basis  as  one 
who  was  on  the  roll  every  day  the  mine  was  in  operation, 
regardless  of  the  fact  that  many  miners  may  have  obtained 
employment  on  the  last  day  of  the  month  or  been  discharged 
at  the  end  of  the  first  day  or  moved  to  another  mine  in  the 
middle  of  the  month  or  died  some  time  during  the  period. 

"A  man  who  worked  13  days  out  of  a  possible  26  at  one 
mine  and  13  at  another  would  be  counted  in  these  figures  as 
two  men  with  an  aggregate  voluntary  absenteeism  of  26 
days  or  50  per  cent  of  the  52  working-days  for  the  two 
mines."^ 

The  report  then  goes  on  to  discuss  the  psychological  causes  of 
absenteeism : 

"But  even  after  allowance  has  been  made  for  all  the  factors 


*  United  States  Bituminous  Coal  Commission,  Majority  and  Minority  Re- 
ports to  the  President,  1920,  p.  44. 

41 


*c? 


entering  into  the  problem  a  margin  remains  between  the 
number  of  days  that  the  miners  actually  work  and  the  num- 
ber when  they  have  an  opportunity  to  work.     A  fair  inter- 
pretation of  this  margin  is  that  an  irregular  industry  breeds 
irregular  habits  among  the  workers.     When  the  men  are  not 
accustomed  to  going  to  work  regularly  every  morning  the 
incentive  for  regularity  becomes  less  potent  and  a  certain 
amount  of  absenteeism  inevitably  results.     This  is  the  psy- 
chological factor  of  irregularity,  and  it  may  be  expected  that 
it  will  disappear  in  large  measure  as  the  industry  becomes 
more  stable."* 
These  statements  of  the  Commission  can  be  supplemented  by 
the  results  of  a  special  investigation  made  in  1919  by  the  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     Careful  records  were  kept  of  the 
actual  hours  of  labor  of  the  men  in  the  mines  investigated.    The 
proportions  of  full  time  worked  by  the  mines  and  by  the  men 
are  shown  in  Table  13  and  pictured  in  Diagram  8. 

TABLE  13.— AVERAGE  FULL-TIME  HOURS.  HOURS  OF  MINE 
OPERATION.  AND  HOURS  WORKED  BY  MINERS  IN  SELECTED 
BITUMINOUS  MINES,  IN  ONE  HALF-MONTH  PAY-ROLL 
PERIOD.  IN  1919  a 


month  pay-roll  period,  and   the  result  constituted  "full-time 
hours"  in  the  period  considered.^ 


Average 

full-time 

hours 

Average 
hours  of 

mine 
operation 

Average 

hours 

miners 

worked 

Hours  lost  by 
miners  out  of 

Occupation 

Full 
time 

Actual 

time 

mines 

operated 

Hand  miners 
Machine  miners 
Loaders 

102.5 
104.3 
104.7 

71.1 
77.9 
81.2 

60.0 
73.2 
65.3 

42.5 
31.1 
39.4 

11.1 

4.7 

15.9 

•  Data  from  Wagea  and  Hours  of  Labor  in  the  Coal  Mining  Industry  in  1919,  United 
states  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Monthly  Labor  Review,  December,  1919,  p.  223. 

In  making  the  inquiry  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  defined 
"full  time"  as  "the  number  of  hours  which  are  regarded  by 
employer  and  employe  as  constituting  a  day's  work."  This 
was  multiplied  by  the  number  of  days  constituting  the  full  half- 

»  United  States  Bituminous  Coal  Commission,  Majority  and  Minority  Re- 
ports to  the  President,  1920,  p.  45. 

42 


1^ 


Per  Cent  of  Full  Time 
Miners    Mines 
worked  operated         Full  time 


Hand  miners 


Machine  miners 


Loaders 


Diagram  8. — Time  worked  by  miners  and  time  the  mines  operated  com- 
pared with  full  time 

The  significant  facts  of  the  table  are  summed  up  as  follows  in 
the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics*: 

"From  the  figures  given  ...  the  immediate  re- 
sponsibility for  idle  time  may  be  roughly  apportioned  be- 
tween the  management  and  the  employes.  Thus,  the  aver- 
age full-time  hours  of  all  mines  in  which  hand  miners  were 
found  were  102.5  for  the  half  month.  Hand  miners  actually 
worked  an  average  of  60  hours.  The  difference,  42.5  hours, 
was  the  amount  of  lost  time  on  the  part  of  the  hand  miners. 
But  of  these  42.5  idle  hour^  there  were  on  the  average  31.4 
hours  during  which  the  mines  were  not  in  operation.  For 
that  amount  of  idleness,  therefore,  the  operators  were  im- 
mediately responsible.'  The  remaining  11.1  hours  of  idle- 
ness represent  the  time  during  which  the  mines  were  in 
operation  and  opportunity  for  work  was  given  of  which  the 
employes  failed  to  take  advantage.  For  that  much  idleness, 
therefore,  the  miners  were  immediately  responsible. 

1  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Monthly  Labor  Review. 
December,  1919,  p.  210. 

» Ibid.,  p.  224. 

'  Presumably  this  statement  is  a  broad  and  general  one,  merely  indicating 
that  the  individual  miner  could  not  be  charged  with  voluntary  idleness  when 
the  mine  was  shut  down.  Of  course,  there  are  reasons  for  the  failure  to  operate 
a  mine,-;-shortage  of  railroad  transportation,  or  "no  market,"  or  physical  con- 
ditions  m  the  mme  (fire  or  flood,  for  instance),  or  sometimes  a  strike,— for 
which  It  is  not  fair  to  hold  the  operator  "immediately  responsible."  But  in 
relation  to  the  point  at  issue,  namely,  voluntary  absenteeism  of  miners,  the 
distinction  is  clear  between  operators '  responsibility  and  miners'  responsibility 
for  time  lost. 

43 


t; 


r^ 


"For  all  machine  miners  combined  the  figures  show 
average  hours  of  idleness  31.1,  of  which  the  operators  were 
responsible  for  26.4  hours  and  the  miners  for  4.7  hours. 
The  corresponding  figures  for  loaders  are  39.4,  23.5,  and 
15.9,  respectively." 

Earnings  in  1921 

The  award  of  the  President's  Bituminous  Coal  Commission 
resulted  in  increases  of  27  per  cent,  on  a  general  average,  in  ton- 
nage rates,  and  a  dollar  a  day  for  day  workers  or  so-called  "com- 
pany men."  In  August,  1920,  the  operators  granted  an  addi- 
tional $1.50  a  day  to  company  men,  making  the  standard  rate  for 
them  $7.50.  These  increases  in  rates  would  have  increased  the 
annual  earnings  of  miners  had  employment  continued  to  be  no 
more  irregular  than  in  the  past.  No  thoroughgoing  inquiry  into 
earnings  in  bituminous  mines  has  been  made  since  these  increases 
took  effect,^  and  we  can  estimate  only  very  generally  how  the 
miner  has  fared. 

As  has  been  shown  in  Diagram  4,  the  year  1920  was  better  than 

1919,  with  220  days  of  employment  as  compared  with  195  in  1919. 
This  greater  regularity  with  higher  rates  of  pay  doubtless  brought 
the  miner  a  higher  income  in  1920  than  in  1918  or  1919.  The 
year  1921,  however,  was  the  worst  in  30  years,  with  only  170  days 
of  employment  (if  the  preliminary  estimate  of  the  Geological 
Survey  remains  unchanged).  Thus  the  average  days  of  mine 
operation  decreased  about  23  per  cent  in  1921  as  compared  with 

1920,  and  32  per  cent  as  compared  with  1918  with  its  249  days 
of  operation,  so  that  the  earnings  in  1921  could  hardly  have 
averaged  as  high  as  in  1918,  even  with  the  higher  rates  in  1921. 

Further  light  on  irregular  operation  in  1921  and  early  in 
1922  is  given  by  an  analysis  of  the  working  time  in  bituminous 
mines  made  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  from 

» See  footnote,  p.  33,  for  reference  to  an  investigation  by  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  which  is  not  yet  published.  In  reply  to  our  request  for 
recent  data  the  National  Coal  Association  wrote  that  "the  National  Coal 
Association  has  not  collected  any  wa^  statistics  of  bituminous  coal  mine 
workers  since  the  award  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  m  1919.  In 
some  states  estimates  have  been  made  by  officials  of  state  bureaus  but  these  are 
not  satisfactory  because  they  represent  no  analysis  of  pay-rolls.  The  Illinois 
Coal  Operators'  Association  has  recently  begun  the  periodical  collection  of 
data  on  employment  from  its  members  and  reference  will  be  made  to  these 
in  the  text.  We  have  been  unable  to  discover  any  information  concerning 
earnings  in  non-union  districts. 

44 


data  furnished  by  the  Geological  Survey  for  each  week  from 
October,  1921,  to  February,  1922.^  In  no  week  of  that  period 
did  more  than  10.7  per  cent  of  the  mines  give  employment  for  48 
hours  or  more.  The  number  of  mines  reporting  ranged  from  2,086 
to  2,584.  In  only  two  weeks  in  that  period  did  more  than  20 
per  cent  of  the  mines  work  more  than  40  hours  a  week  and  the 
maximum  group  working  more  than  40  hours  in  any  week  was 
only  25.1  per  cent  of  the  whole  number.  The  Bureau  says  of 
these  figures:  "The  number  of  mines  reporting  varied  each  week, 
and  the  figures  are  not  given  as  being  a  complete  representation  of 
all  mines,  but  are  believed  to  fairly  represent  the  conditions  as  to 
irregularity  of  work  in  the  bituminous  mines  of  the  country." 

The  Illinois  Coal  Operators'  Association  has  been  issuing  statis- 
tical tables  for  bi-weekly  periods  since  the  autumn  of  1921.  Of 
those  which  its  secretary  furnished  us,  from  October  16,  1921, 
through  January  15,  1922  (with  one  missing  for  the  two  weeks 
ending  November  30),  none  covered  more  than  29  per  cent  of  the 
mines  of  Illinois.  Full  data  for  wages  are  not  presented;  all 
miners  earning  less  than  $50  in  the  two  weeks'  period  are  omitted 
from  consideration  and  the  tables  give  the  average  earnings  only 
of  those  earning  $50  or  more  in  two  weeks,  together  with  the  per- 
centage which  they  constitute  of  the  whole  force.  The  average 
earnings  in  two  weeks  of  these  employes  are  reported  as  $92.76 
for  the  two  weeks  ending  October  31,  1921;  $86.85  for  Novem- 
ber 15;  $82.46  for  December  15;  $80.81  for  December  31;  and 
$79.36  for  January  15,  1922.  These  appear  to  be  gross  earnings, 
from  which  must  be  deducted  the  amounts  payable  for  powder, 
small  tools,  and  other  "occupational  charges."  These  average 
charges  are  stated.  This  higher  paid  group  is  recorded  as  con- 
stituting a  varying  percentage  of  the  total  employes,  from  91.3 
per  cent  on  October  31,  1921,  to  59.5  per  cent  on  December  15. 
The  Association  intends  to  publish  fuller  details,  but  in  their  pres- 
ent form  the  data  do  not  include  in  the  picture  the  group  with 
lower  earnings  which  in  one  of  the  two-week  periods  included  40 
out  of  each  100  miners.  Their  earnings  would  depress  the  aver- 
age. Moreover,  the  data  do  not  yet  cover  a  period  long  enough  to 
show  the  effects  of  irregular  employment  in  a  year.  The  Associa- 
tion in  its  publications  is  emphasizing  "  the  excess  number  of  men 

»  Data  of  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  to  be  published  in  the  Monthly 
Labor  Review  for  April,  1922. 

45 


detained  in  the  industry,"  and  the  fact  that  this  results  in  lower 
average  earnings  than  if  the  number  were  less.^ 

The  United  Mine  Workers  have  no  comprehensive  figures  on 
earnings  since  1918,  but  data  have  been  given  by  W.  Jett  Lauck, 
from  information  supplied  by  the  United  Mine  Workers  for  the 
men  actually  employed  in  a  few  districts.  According  to  these 
figures,  the  average  earnings  during  the  year  1921  were  only  $763 
in  the  Pittsburgh  district;  $550  in  the  Ohio  district;  $500  in  West 
Virginia  (New  River) ;  and  $420  in  Tennessee.* 

The  Miners'  Estimates  of  Cost  of  Living 

These  facts  about  annual  earnings  are  significant  only  if  they 
are  measured  in  terms  of  the  cost  of  living.  In  the  hearings  be- 
fore the  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  the  miners*  representatives 
gave  two  estimates  of  the  cost  of  living,  one  for  a  so-called  "mini- 
mum of  subsistence,  **  and  the  other  for  a  "minimum  of  comfort. " 
For  the  minimum  of  subsistence  an  annual  income  of  $1,603  was 
estimated  as  necessary,  in  January,  1920.  This  was  to  cover 
barest  living  necessities  for  a  family  of  five.  The  detailed  items  of 
this  budget  were  not  published,  but  the  total  estimate  was  based 
on  a  number  of  earlier  investigations  in  industrial  centers  revised 
to  cover  subsequent  changes  in  retail  prices.  The  "minimum  of 
comfort"  budget,  which  was  estimated  with  a  view  to  the  needs 
of  families  living  in  mining  communities,  called  for  an  annual 
income  of  $2,244.  This  latter  estimate  was  prepared  by  Professor 
W.  F.  Ogbum  of  Columbia  University,  at  the  request  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers.     Table  14  shows  the  principal  items  of  this 

budget. 

This  budget  is  simply  an  estimate.  Moreover,  it  was  prepared 
at  a  time  of  higher  prices  than  the  present.  The  cost  of  living  in 
mining  communities  is  one  of  the  many  import;^ant  subjects  con- 
nected with  human  relations  in  this  industry  about  which  exact 
facts  are  not  available.  The  estimate  made  by  Professor  Og- 
bum serves,  however,  to  illuminate  the  effects  of  irregular  opera- 
tion of  the  mines  upon  the  lives  of  the  miners.  The  miners 
might  earn  a  reasonably  comfortable  living  if  they  could  work  the 

»See,  for  instance,  the  pamphlet,  ♦'Coal,  a  Few  Thin^  the  Public  >yants  to 
Know,"  issued  by  the  Illinois  Coal  Operators'  Association.    (Undated.) 

•Signed  article,  by  W.  Jett  Lauck.  with  head-line.  "Says  Miners  Wish 
More  Work,  Not  Less  and  Must  Get  It,"  in  Baltimore  Sun,  March  23.  1922. 

46 


year  round.  The  lack  of  opportunity  to  work  so  many  days  in  a 
year  reduces  their  income  to  what  the  miners  contend  is  often 
not  even  a  bare  subsistence. 

TABLE  14.— COST  OF  A  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT  BUDGET  FOR 
ONE  YEAR  FOR  A  FAMILY  OF  FIVE  IN  MINING  COMMUNI- 
TIES AT  PRICE  LEVELS  OF  JANUARY,  1920- 

?^hi„g *^''' 

Husband $146.81 

Wife 130.92 

Boy  (11  yrs.) 77.40 

Girl  (5  yrs.) 66.13 

Boy  (2  yrs.) 34.00     455.26 

Housing,  fuel,  and  light 286.00 

Miscellaneous ; 576.30 

Total $2,118.94 

Average  saving  on  garden  and  chickens 15.00 

0^  

IT     1    •             vu.  $2,103.94 

£.xplosives.  smithing,  etc 140.00 

Total $2,243.94 

»  Prepared  by  W.  F.  Ogburn  and  presented  by  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  in 
their  report.  The  Case  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Mine  Workers,  to  the  Bituminous  Coal  Commis- 
sion m  1920. 

In  brief,  the  alternative  to  raising  rates  of  pay  is  to  increase  the 
regularity  of  the  opportunity  for  work  at  the  present  rates.  The 
miner  might  well  ask  for  a  guaranteed  minimum  of  employment 
as  more  important  than  higher  rates  of  pay.  The  necessity  for 
regarding  a  minimum  of  employment  as  a  fixed  charge  upon  the 
industry  would  probably  make  operators  more  reluctant  to  open 
new  mines  or  unduly  to  enlarge  those  already  open.  To  make 
employment  regular  is  important  not  only  for  the  miner,  but  for 
the  economical  conduct  of  the  industry.  Capital,  as  well  as  men, 
is  wastefully  used  when  money  and  energy  are  invested  on  a  scale 
which  could  produce  much  more  coal  than  can  be  sold. 

Summary 

1.  The  capacity  of  the  bituminous  mines  to  produce  coal  has 
been  conservatively  estimated  as  700,000,000  or  800,000,000  tons  a 
year  compared  with  actual  requirements  of  about  500,000,000  tons. 

2.  The  bituminous  coal  mines  have  operated  on  an  average  of 
only  214  days  a  year  in  the  32  years  from  1890  through  1921.    If 

47 


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we  accept  304  days  as  a  full  working  year,  the  lost  days  of  employ- 
ment in  bituminous  mines  have  averaged  90  in  a  year. 

3  Of  these  lost  days  37  per  cent,  according  to  the  estimates  ot 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  have  been  due  to  the  over- 
development of  the  industry.  The  short  working  year  has  con- 
tinued through  times  of  prosperity.  The  excess  of  capacity  over 
production  in  the  bituminous  coal  mines  makes  employment 
intermittent  for  miners  even  when  business  in  general  is  most 

''T'rhrproduction  of  coal  has  increased  from  120.600,000  tons 
per  year  in  the  five-year  period  from  1890  through  1894  to  nearly 
507,000,000  tons  a  year  from  1915  through  1919.  The  number  of 
employes  has  increased  from  an  average  of  less  than  200,000  in 
1890  to  about  600,000  in  1921.  The  days  of  employment  in  a 
year  have  shown  no  appreciable  increase  except  temporarily  dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  war.  The  increased  demand  for  coal  has 
resulted  in  opening  new  mines  and  employing  more  miners  rather 
than  in  giving  more  regular  employment  in  the  mines  already 

*"1!*Sonal  variations,  according  to  the  United  States  Geolog- 
ical Survey,  account  for  47  per  cent  of  the  lost  days  in  bituminous 
coal  mining.  In  the  period  from  1913  through  1921  the  «cc^  ^^ 
production  of  coal  in  the  month  of  greatest  output  over  thatof  the 
month  of  least  output  in  each  year  varied  usually  f«'";11^.0«> 
to  16,000,000  tons  or  more  and  was  never  less  than  6,900,000  tons. 
These  seasonal  variations  result  in  keeping  more  men  m  the  in- 
dustry than  would  be  needed  if  work  were  more  evenly  distributed 
throughout  the  year.  This  excess  in  numbers  of  men  employed  m 
the  industry  tends  in  turn  to  make  employment  more  irregular 

and  uncertain.  .       v    uv 

6  With  employment  intermittent  and  uncertam,  the  bitumin- 
ous miners  are  forced  to  seek  higher  rates  of  wages  to  offset  the 
periods  of  idleness  and  lack  of  earnings.  The  mme  workers  re 
ported  to  the  Bituminous  Coal  Commission  that  m  1918  which 
was  a  year  of  unusual  regularity  of  employment  owing  to  the  war 
demands,  the  average  annual  earnings  of  their  members  in  the 
central  competitive  field  varied  from  $1,364  m  Ohio  to  a  ma^- 
mum  of  $1,583  in  Western  Pennsylvania.  Data  derived  from  the 
United  States  Census  indicate  that  in  1919  the  ^;^^'^^^^;^^^^^ 
earnings  of  the  miners  in  the  same  area  varied  from  $1,062  in 

48 


V 


Indiana  to  a  maximum  of  $1,318  in  Pennsylvania.  Estimates  of 
annual  earnings  derived  from  average  daily  earnings  reported  by 
the  National  Coal  Association  to  the  President's  Bituminous  Coal 
Commission  indicate  that  the  average  annual  earnings  in  the 
central  competitive  field  for  men  working  the  full  time  of  mine 
operation  were  about  $1,277  for  inside  day  labor,  $1,492  for  load- 
ers, $1,579  for  hand  miners  and  $1,760  for  machine  miners.  The 
general  average  increase  of  27  per  cent  granted  by  the  Bituminous 
Coal  Commission  would  have  increased  these  earnings  had  em- 
ployment continued  to  be  no  more  irregular  than  in  the  past. 
Even  in  the  comparatively  prosperous  year  of  1920,  however, 
employment  was  12  per  cent  less  than  in  1918,  while  in  1921 
employment  decreased  23  per  cent  as  compared  with  1920,  and 
32  per  cent  as  compared  with  1918.  This  shows  that  opportunity 
for  employment  as  measured  by  the  number  of  days  the  mines 
are  operated  is  of  primary  importance  to  the  miner,  since  irregular 
employment  nullifies  the  advantage  of  increased  rates  of  pay. 

7.  Estimates  of  the  cost  of  living,  prepared  for  the  United  Mine 
Workers,  and  presented  by  them  to  the  Bituminous  Coal  Com- 
mission, showed  that  in  January,  1920,  $1,603  was  required  for  a 
budget  to  provide  a  "minimum  of  subsistence*'  for  a  family  of 
five.  The  cost  of  providing  a  "  minimum  of  health  and  comfort " 
for  families  living  in  mining  communities  was  estimated  as  re- 
quiring an  annual  income  of  $2,244.  Even  in  the  prosperous  year 
of  1918  the  miners'  average  annual  earnings  were  not  equal  to 
the  "minimum  of  subsistence,"  except  for  the  annual  income 
of  a  comparatively  small  group  of  machine  miners  employed 
"full  opportunity,"  as  estimated  from  the  operators*  figures,  and 
their  earnings  were  neariy  $500  less  in  a  year  than  the  miners' 
"minimum  of  comfort"  budget.  An  allowance  for  a  decrease 
in  the  cost  of  living  and  an  increase  in  the  miners'  rates  of  pay 
probably  would  not  cover  the  difference  between  a  reasonable 
budget  and  the  annual  income  of  the  miner  in  his  short  working 
year. 

8.  Present  conditions  in  the  bituminous  coal  industry  render 
precarious  and  difficult  the  lives  of  more  than  half  a  million  miners 
and  their  wives  and  children.  The  adjustment  of  wage  rates  is 
sure  to  produce  conflict  and  bitterness  until  the  equally  impor- 
tant questions  of  stability  for  the  industry  and  security  of  employ- 
ment for  the  miner  receive  effective  attention  from  operators  and 

49 


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public.    Greater  security  in  employment  must  be  made  the  foun- 
dation of  better  human  relations  in  this  industry. 

Wasteful  over-development  is  a  problem  of  organization  ot 
the  industry  as  a  whole  in  which  either  the  operators  or  the  pub- 
lic must  take  the  initiative.  The  cost  of  living  of  everybody  .s 
increased  by  disorganization  in  the  basic  industry  of  coal.  The 
public,  the  operator  and  the  investor,  and  the  coal  ™ner  have 
a  common  interest  in  making  bituminous  mmmg  efficient  and 
,  economical. 


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